The celebrated Palestinian director Michel Khleifi is 65 this year and Shubbak has invited him to mark this occasion by curating the festival’s main film programme: a themed, personal selection from his own films in dialogue with works of Arab and European cinema. Spread across three venues, the season explores representations of Palestine and the Arab in European cinema, as well as the struggle for the emancipation of women.

Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel | Michel Khleifi & Eyal Sivan | Belgium/France/Germany | 2003 | 273 mins (total runtime)
Summer 2002: Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan traveled the length of their country of birth. Tracing their trajectory on a map, they called it ‘Route 181’ after United Nations Resolution 181 – the 1947 partition plan of Palestine into two independent states: one Arab and one Jewish. This 3-part documentary follows the filmmakers as they meet the two peoples along the route.

A rare chance to see all three parts of the seminal travelogue across two days.

Part 2: The Centre | 103 mins
The second installment continues the route from the Jewish-Arab city of Lod to Jerusalem.

Part 3: The North | 85 mins
The final installment completes the route from Rass El-Ein/Rosh Ha’ayn, near the separation wall, to the Lebanese border.

Followed by a Q&A with the directors, Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan

Michel Khleifi is a Palestinian / Belgian director and writer, born in Nazareth in 1950. He has won several prestigious international awards for his films including the International Critics’ Award, Cannes ’87 and the Golden Concha, San Sebastian ’87 for Wedding in Galilee.

FREE. Places Limited. rsvp@mosaicrooms.org

Have you checked out the rest of our FREE Michel Khleifi film season screenings? You might also like Canticle of the Stones, Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land and Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel Part 1.

Part of Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture. 11 – 26 July 2015.

Shubbak is the UK’s premier festival of contemporary Arab culture, presenting outstanding international Arab artists to London audiences and communities. www.shubbak.co.uk