RETURN TO HAIFA
( عائد الى حيفا )
Dir. by Kassem Hawal, 1982
Lebanon. 75 min.
In Arabic, English, German w/ English subtitles.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5 - 10pm
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19 - 7:30pm
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23 - 5pm

Based on Ghassan Kanafani's eponymous 1969 novella, Return to Haifa takes place in 1967 during the Six-Day War when Palestinian refugees had an opportunity to visit the places from which they had been expelled during the 1948 Nakba. Sa’id and Safiyya, a Palestinian couple living in Ramallah, return to their home for the first time. Living there now is Miriam, a Holocaust survivor and Jewish Israeli citizen. Not realizing they would be unable to return, Sa’id and Safiyya left behind their infant son who they find has been raised by Miriam. The film depicts the Nakba as not only the tragedy of the Palestinian people but also of the Israeli settlers who cannot escape confronting this past and becoming accountable for it. Who is the father? Who is the mother? What is a homeland?

Iraqi director Kassem Hawal was born in 1940 and studied theater acting and directing at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. After leaving Iraq in 1970 he traveled to Lebanon and Syria, worked on films for the PLO, and has directed 28 documentaries and five features over his career.