88 Lothian Road
Sat 29 Aug · 15:10
Screening as part of Falastin Film Festival 2026 . This screening will be followed by a zoom Q&A with the directors. This programme traces the enduring histories of occupation and war in South Lebanon, from 1978 to the present, through films that bear witness to both armed resistance and the quieter, everyday labour of remaining. Framed by acts of return - to liberated villages, to destroyed homes, to sites of memory - the programme honours those who fought on the frontlines and those who, between intervals, continued to care for the land, preserving life and sustaining the possibility of return as acts of resistance in themselves. FILMS FEATURED: Souha, Surviving Hell (dir. Randa Chahal Sabbag, France/Lebanon, 2001, 57 mins, Arabic, French, English w/ English subtitles) Originally from South Lebanon – a region she had always known to be under Israeli occupation – Souha Bechara attempted to assassinate General Lahd, commander of the South Lebanon Army, an auxiliary force of Israel. Seriously injured, he narrowly escaped death. Souha, meanwhile, was imprisoned and tortured. She was 21 years old and would spend ten years in Khiam camp, six of them in complete solitary confinement. On 24 May 2000, after 23 years of occupation, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon. The Khiam camp was stormed by the crowd… The film traces Souha’s return to her village of Deir Mimas, to the Khiam camp, and to the very place where she attempted to assassinate General Lahd, showing her reunion with former detainees from the Khiam camp. The Bunker, The Barracks & The Base (dir. Batoul Faour, Lebanon/Canada, 2023, 18 mins, Arabic w/ English subtitles) Towards the end of the Second World War, French and British forces fortified the Khiam Marjayoun valley and its surrounding villages in the South of Lebanon through a comprehensive military scheme. At the core of this scheme were three structures – a hospital bunker, an airbase, and a military barracks. After the retreat of the allies came the
Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.