Fertile Memory (Al Dhakira al Khasba)
Michel Khleifi, 1980
The Palestinian Michel Khleifi is probably the finest Arab film-maker of his generation. I must declare an interest here as we have worked together for more than 20 years, but in truth I admire all his films. His most famous is Wedding in Galilee, but for me his most moving and exciting work is the documentary that made his name.Fertile Memory is a portrait of two women: one a radical young Palestinian novelist, a divorcée, living with her daughters in the Occupied Territories; the other Khleifi's illiterate aunt, who lost her husband just after the 1948 war. This is the first feminist Arab film and it has a very keen sense of observation and political engagement.
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