queer palestinian short film: "houria"

queer short cuts is a biweekly newsletter where i share queer & trans short film recommendations. i’m featuring some of my favorite films on tumblr because why not

palestine | 7 minutes | 2010 | experimental short film audio in arabic; english subtitles embedded

houria | حـ(و)ـرية, an experimental film directed by raafat hattab, intercuts between a violinist (boodi el esawi) playing on a beach at manshiye who is joined unexpectedly by a mermaid (played by raafat hattab himself), a person getting their chest tattooed, and an interview with hattab’s grandmother, yousra, talking about her parents’ flight from their home in jamaseen al-garbi when she was a baby, during the 1948 nakba (“catastrophe”), during which thousands of palestinians were killed and an estimated 700,000 were displaced because of Israeli ethnic cleansing. The gender fluidity of hattab’s mermaid, the permanence of the tattoo, and the impermanence of palestinian life and homeland in yousra’s story come together to illustrate the paradoxes and grief of dislocation that palestinians face daily. - deepa's full review, including content notes at the end

watch on youtube, and learn more about creator raafat hattab, who is a queer palestinian interdisciplinary artist based in tel aviv, at his website