Chronicles From the Siege
Depicting life under constant bombardment, a Berlin award winner highlights how humour and humanity persist amid the horrors of war.
In an unidentified war zone under constant attack, life for locals must go on. Survival doesn’t just mean dodging bombs and sniper fire, but also trying to find food, warmth, a cigarette or the time and privacy to have sex. While former filmmaker Arafat scavenges for food and medicine, a group of young friends break into his boarded-up video store, debating whether to burn the old videotapes to make a fire or just trade memories of their favourite movies.
Long-time human rights activist Abdallah Alkhatib was born in Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp, one of the largest settlements of displaced Palestinians; his 2021 documentary Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege chronicled life in Yarmouk and its fall during the Syrian civil war. Here, drawing from his own experiences of living under fire, he builds a drama that is at once urgent, defiant and unexpectedly funny. The recipient of the Best First Feature award at Berlin this year, Chronicles From the Siege delivers a searing portrait of lives that refuse to be overlooked.
“Mixes harsh realism with a diverse panorama of the way in which people seize the possibility of joy even in the face of destruction … It crackles, buoyantly and sometimes explicitly, with the affirmative energies of cinema.” – Screen Daily
Tickets
For information about the accessible services being offered at MIFF, please visit miff.com.au/access. If you require any access service, such as wheelchair/step-free access, for any MIFF session, please call 03 8660 4888 or email boxoffice@miff.com.au to book your ticket.
You might also like ...
Receiving the highest documentary prize at Cannes, this inspired essay movie channels the tumult of Iranian history into a personal account of loss.
An unapologetic cry for humanity that reveals the on-the-ground reality of the genocide in Gaza and the experiences of the frontline medical volunteers who put their principles into practice.
The Iranian state has imprisoned her body; now it wants her innermost self. Under torture, can a rebel teacher defend her values, emotions and memories?