A collection of interviews with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon during the civil war, interviewed by Malas about what dreams they saw when they went to sleep.
EN
“Malas was in Beirut a few months prior to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and with a small crew visited the Sabra, Shatila, Burj al-Barajneh, and Ain al-Hulweh refugee camps, filming interviews with ordinary Palestinians, civilians and militants alike, most of them among the hundreds later massacred by Gemayel’s Phalangist militia on Israeli watch. The Dream is a rainbow at midnight, fearfully beautiful in stippled 16mm pastels, preserving the refugees’ voices and gainsaying their misfortune through recollected dreams interspersed with song (‘Father, I have seen eleven planets’). One rickety matron shows off the makeshift carbine supplied by her son, declaring, ‘Of course it works!’ There is disarming humor – one militant is seated before a poster of Che Guevara, their tousled manes merging in outline – and above all, a frank, easy fellowship, that in hindsight loads the film with tragic ballast.”
Ioannis Mookas1
- 1
Ioannis Mookas, “The Road to Damascus: Discovering Syrian Cinema,” Bidoun, Fall 2006.
