Kharej al-Itar (Off-Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory)

Directed by Mohanad Yaqubi (Palestine/France/Qatar/Lebanon, 2016, 62 minutes)
Languages: Arabic, French, English, Italian
Presented as part of the 58th Carnegie International Film Festival

After the Nakba of Palestine in 1948, Palestinians were portrayed as victims packed into refugee camps, dependent on relief from international organizations. The Palestinian revolution of 1965 enabled men and women to take both their destiny and their image into their own hands, transforming from assisted refugees into freedom fighters. The Palestinian struggle joined worldwide anti-imperialist liberation movements, and the camera became a weapon for those who could pass invisibly. A group of photographers and filmmakers established the Palestine Film Unit within the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), forging from their offices in Lebanon links with militant filmmakers internationally and with institutions in East Berlin, Moscow, Baghdad, and Cuba. During the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982 the material they had collected was destroyed. Off Frame considers how a young filmmaker looks at these images today. It sews together sequences from films found scattered in archives worldwide, in which fiction borders on propaganda and fantasy borders on reality, capturing or highlighting what is outside, or “off” frame. Yaqubi refrains from commenting on these images, leaving space for spectators to feel and extract their own meaning.