This experimental film looks at a short 11-second archival clip from The Fifth War (1980) by Samir Nimr and Monica Maurer. The footage was manipulated to become 6 minutes. The work asks the viewer to sit with a gaze that is hard to hold. While sound bytes in the background recall pieces of Palestinian heritage, especially those tied to militant cinema. Many of these records were later found in fragments after the looting of Palestinian archives in Lebanon by the IDF in 1982.
Country
BelgiumYear
2025Length
6'
Category
ExperimentalPremiere
Italian
Editing
Ruba AlsharkiProduction
LUCA School of ArtsAcademic and educational context in which the short film was developped
FilmMemory Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, European Film Heritage & Histories LUCA SCHOOL OF ART BrusselsSynopsis
Biography
Ruba Alsharki is a Yemeni filmmaker, visual artist and researcher based in Brussels. Her practice moves between fiction and documentary, exploring the relationship between the personal and the political.
Statement
I encountered the archival material through Mohanad Yacoubi’s film Off Frame aka Revolution Until Victory (2015); an archive based film which contained a 30 second scene from The fifth war (1980). This began my research process on palestenian militant cinema between 1960’s-80, discovering the cultural erasure and looting of archives as a system of oppression, The film became the gaze in which my research took place. Sound functions as an important element when visuals cannot. The treatment of the footage was an excersize in lengthening, in away the encounter with this piece of footage was the experience I wanted to evoke. A hypontized gaze. I was in contact with AAMOD and the director Monica Maurer, through a collegue who works with the archive, who personally shared the film with them.
— Ruba Alsharki
Archival materials
Film archive
The Fifth War (1980) – Monica Maurer & Samir Nimr
Aamod – Fondazione Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico.
Sound archive
The Urgent Call of Palestine (1973) – Ismail Shammout
Richard Carleton interview (1970) – PFLP Ghassan Kanafani
Children Without Childhood (1979) – Khadijeh Habashneh Abu Ali
Rafeef Ziadah (2011) – Shades of anger
Atif swaitat Birds – Majaaz Project
Kings & Extras – Azza El-Hassan.
Extra
