Mahdi Fleifel
XENOS
2014 12′ 06″
28 April – 6 May 2015
videonale.15: Can you describe your intention for doing art in one sentence?
Mahdi Fleifel: To make sense of life.
Synopsis
Xenos (Greek: ξένος, xénos) stranger, enemy, alien
In 2010, Abu Eyad and other young Palestinian men from the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon travelled with smugglers through Syria and Turkey into Greece. Like so many other migrants, they came looking for a way into Europe but found themselves trapped in a country undergoing economic, political, and social collapse. Xenos is a short documentary blending footage shot on visits to Athens in 2011 with phone conversations recorded during Abu Eyad’s time there. It tells of his day-to-day struggle for survival and enduring sense of exile in a land of hope that has become a nightmare.
Xenos follows on from A World Not Ours (2012), in which the director depicted Abu Eyad’s life in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp.
Interview with Mahdi Fleifel – “God is not an estate agent”
“Can you say something about the discrimination of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon?
MF: There are 72 jobs they are not allowed to practice. They can’t be doctors, lawyers or government employees. Neither the Christians nor the Shiites in Lebanon wanted them to become citizens. This way they keep a large Sunni population out of the game. So the Lebanese say they’ll help them preserve their right to return to their homeland by not making them citizens so they don’t assimilate and forget about it.
In one scene you show your visit to Israel, even to Yad Vashem. How did you feel there?
MF: It was very strange. I was fortunate enough to go with my Danish high school class. We were hosted by an Israeli high school class so I didn’t have to deal with the nightmare of the Israeli checkpoints because I didn’t visit the West bank or Gaza. I was young then when I visited this place that throughout my childhood I was told was my home and where my grandparents came from. Yet I felt like a guest, an outsider who has been welcomed by others to his own home. It’s a very weird feeling. I’m not sure I understand it to this day.
Did you find any remains from the village Saffourieh, which your family left in 1948
MF: The only “archeological leftovers” was some ruin with a fence around where my grandfather used to keep his sheep… [read more here]”
Biography
Mahdi Fleifel is a Palestinian filmmaker and visual artist based in London. He was born in Dubai, raised in the Ain El-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon and later in the suburbs of Elsinore, Denmark. He graduated from the British National Film and Television School in 2009. His recently completed feature documentary, A World Not Ours, is currently touring the festival circuit and has already picked up multiple awards. His next feature, Men In The Sun is based on the themes and characters encountered while making Xenos, and is currently being developed as part of the New Danish Screen scheme.
Filmography
2013 Men In The Sun (feature film in development) – writer/director
2013 Xenos (12 min. documentary) – writer/director/photographer
2012 Visit Palestine (video installation for Koh-i-noor Gallery in Copenhagen)
2012 A World Not Ours (93 min. feature doc) – writer/director/photographer
2009 Four Weeks (17 min. fiction) – writer/director
2008 Arafat & I (15 min. fiction) – writer/director/actor
2007 The Writer (7 min. fiction) – writer/director/actor
2006 Harrisons Monday’s Arms (music promo) – writer/director
2004 Hamoudi & Emil (23 min. fiction) – writer/director/producer
2003 Shadi In The Beautiful Well (12 min. fiction) – writer/director/producer
Xenos Credits
Director / Photographer: Mahdi Fleifel
Producer: Patrick Campbell
Editor: Michael Aaglund
Sound Designer: Gunnar Oskarsson
Digital Colourist: Aurora Shannon
Motion Graphics Designer: Damien Bent
Featuring: Abu Eyad, Nizar, El-Yes, Mukhtar, Abu El-Hob, El-Khal, Abed M
Links
http://v15.videonale.org/en/artists/mahdi-fleifel/
http://www.nakbafilmworks.com/
Huffington Post interview here.
Doha Film Institute interview here.
Abu Dhabi Film Festival interview here.