Palestinian Sunbird Documentary Competition
Synopsis
Fadia, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, is stranded by history on the wrong side of the border, yearning for the ancestral homeland she is denied. When a chance meeting introduces her to the director, Sarah, she challenges her to find an ancient mulberry tree that once grew next to her grandfather’s house in historic Palestine. With only inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon as her guides, Sarah embarks on her quest to find the tree. Along the way, she learns that the region is also one of the world’s busiest superhighways for bird migration. And it is the observations of the ornithologists on the homing instincts of these millions of birds, that inadvertently reveal key elements of the Palestinian refugee situation. Spanning fifteen years, this story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land and a fragmented people adopts a birds’ eye perspective to reflect on freedom of movement, exile and the hope of return.
UK, 2021
Arabic and English with English subtitles
82 minutes
16+
Director: Sarah Beddington
Cinematography: Sarah Beddington
Editing: Ariadna Fatjo-Vilas
Sound: Stefan Smith
Music: Muqata'a
Producer/s: Susan Simnett (Over The Fence Films)
Sarah Beddington is a British visual artist and filmmaker based in London. Her research-based works in film and video, sculpture, performance and public art, explore the overlaps between the historical, the mythical and the everyday, often focusing on journeys and migration. Fadia’s Tree is Beddington’s first feature length film. As a self-shooting director, her background as a painter is evident in the way she frames images and allows the camera to linger on a shot. The film marks a culmination of her earlier and parallel works in which a poetic sensibility is used to draw out an alternate way of looking at complex subjects. Resolutely committed to the issues she makes work about, her films operate on both an intellectual and emotional level to open up new dialogues that may result in change for those seemingly trapped at the margins.