Beirut 1931
Fall Grants 2018 - Development Stage
Kamal Aljafari / Feature Narrative / Palestine, Qatar / 2019 / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Family, Exile
Synopsis
“K.” arrives in his native Jaffa after the disappearance of “M.” Like a lurking shadow, “M.” would only occasionally visit his family home— mostly over weekends—and would sometimes disappear for long periods of time. The visits he pays to hospitals and ministries in search for him prove futile, albeit for the fact that they drive him into a sort of labyrinth inside the Tel Aviv of today. But this is just one illustration of the extent to which the lines between the real and the fictitious are totally blurred. When “K.” finds a trace of “M.” in the background of an Israeli fiction film as he accidentally roams the street behind the shooting locale, the haziness between fiction and reality is accentuated further. Meanwhile, in the streets, “K.” watches a film crew as they prepare a real-time explosion to destroy the last iconic building left in Jaffa.
Credits
- Director
- Kamal Aljafari
- Screenwriter
- Kamal Aljafari
- Producer
- Kamal Aljafari
About the Director
Kamal Aljafari works with moving and still images, interweaving between fiction, non-fiction, and art. Kamal’s past films include ‘Unusual Summer’ (2020), ‘Recollection’ (2015), ‘Port of Memory’ (2009), and ‘The
Roof’ (2006). He was a featured artist at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar (NYC) and was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute and Film Study Center.