In past years, the goal of the Toronto Palestine Film Festival was to celebrate Palestinian culture with Toronto audiences. This year, Canada’s largest exhibition of Palestinian cinema faces unprecedented challenges as it honours a place and a people enduring great suffering.
The festival, which runs until Oct. 2 at the TIFF Lightbox and online, is set in a fraught socio-political landscape in Canada and abroad. “It’s darkness meets quicksand,” said Dania Majid, co-founder and primary programmer of the festival. “There are so many layers of trauma, rage and grief.”
This year’s program, which is focused on finding joy in togetherness, features music, poetry, art and film, as well as workshops on the intricacies of tatreez embroidery and a chance to master the lively steps of the dabke. Foodies can enjoy a hearty community brunch and sample traditional Palestinian cuisine. “We hope (the community) feels they can put down the armour they wear in their daily lives, especially as Palestinians, and simply be,” Majid said
Here are five standout events from this year’s festival.
Artist salon with Malak Mattar
Sept. 26, 6:45 p.m., TIFF Lightbox
“No Words,” a painting by Palestinian visual artist Malak Mattar, 24, inundated social media when it was exhibited in Venice during the same time as the city hosted its Biennale. Mattar’s largest work to date, the monochrome painting departs from her previously hopeful pieces, reflecting the artist’s determination to keep Gaza in the foreground.
“It’s personal and collective,” said Mattar. “But I didn’t make it for a specific audience; I made it for humanity.” The original painting will be on display at TIFF Lightbox for the duration of the festival.
Nai Barghouti in concert
Sept. 27, 7 p.m., Meridian Arts Centre
Nai Barghouti describes her music as a blend of Arabic traditional, jazz and Western classical influences. “It all comes together to serve this one seamless sound,” said the 27-year-old composer-vocalist. Barghouti has since performed in sold-out venues across Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.
“There was always a fear and apologetic feeling about being Palestinian in Europe and in other parts of the world,” Barghouti said, “but this year I realized the importance of discussing Palestine, even on a little platform.”
Her performance — and Canadian debut — is part of her series “Unheard.” “I would love for the audience to bring their purest emotions,” she said. “And their need for hope, like my need for hope.”
Author talk with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Sept. 28, 5 p.m., TIFF Lightbox
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha once wrote poetry in Arabic, but now writes almost exclusively in English. Her latest collection, “Something About Living,” explores the challenges of life as a Palestinian in North America, where language often obscures more than it connects. The collection was longlisted for the U.S. National Book Awards earlier this month.
“Nothing I’m writing now feels like it can save anything or stop a single bullet,” Tuffaha said. “But it’s necessary to keep records and express what’s happening in very clear terms.”
“There’s strength in togetherness that is necessary in this moment, because there is a very long road ahead.”
Screening of ‘To My Father’
Sept. 29, 3 p.m., TIFF Lightbox, followed by a talk with director Adel Salam Shehada
Emerging Palestinian artists often feel compelled to use their art as a form of record-keeping, preserving what they can of Palestinian life and culture. But Hamilton-based Abdel Salam Shehada, 63, has been collecting stories for decades. Now, all his images, films and cameras are lost in Gaza’s rubble, leaving him to search for himself anew.
“I am looking for the place I was born, for my youth, my memories, my dreams,” Shehada says. “Loss is a big word amid the chaos that is currently happening.”
His documentary “To My Father,” partly set in a Rafah refugee camp, is a graceful homage to Palestinian photography and life. Created to cope with the death of the peace process and internal strife at the time, it premiered at TPFF in 2009. The festival pulled the film from its archives, giving Shehada a piece of himself back. “Thanks to cinema and film,” he says, “I am able to speak about my life and my people.”
Screening of The Teacher
Sept. 25, 7 p.m., TIFF Lightbox
Oscar-nominated Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi shot her first feature, “The Teacher,” in Nablus, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. The film premiered at TIFF last year and, Nabulsi said, was met with a touch of hesitation. At the time, Nabulsi hoped “The Teacher” would prompt reflection on the impossible choices the characters are forced to make.
Now she hopes the film provides the human context often missing from discourse on the Palestinian struggle.
“Film offers a way to truly appreciate the humanity behind each life,” Nabulsi said.
