A screening of Mustafa Abu Ali’s 1974 film ‘They Do Not Exist’ will be followed by a discussion led by members of PalSoc.Entry is free to all members of the university, with viewers encouraged to make a donation to Medical Aid for Palestine
Despite being salvaged from the ruins of Beirut in 1982, the film has only recently been made accessible to audiences. They Do Not Exist only had its Palestinian premier in 2003, after a group of Palestinian artists smuggled the director into a makeshift cinema in Jerusalem despite Israel’s restrictions on his entry.
Shooting under unprecedented circumstances, Abu Ali played a key role in establishing the PLO’s film division- They Do Not Exist delves into the conditions of Lebanon’s refugee camps, the impacts of Israeli bombardments and the lives of guerrillas in training camps. Representing a unique interaction of the political and the aesthetic, They Do Not Exist has come to be acknowledged as a foundational work in the evolution of Palestinian cinema.