Origin: Lebanon | Documentary | Director: Kassem Hawal | 40 minutes

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Kassem Hawal fled from his native Iraq after political persecution in 1970. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s he worked with the PLO Film Unit. His vision was the liberation of the region from imperialist and class exploitation. Palestinian Identity is a rare example of a PLO film made after their departure from Beirut. It documents the burnt and destroyed cultural and educational centres from which the israeli military stole films, photographs, historical and contemporary manuscripts. The film includes interviews with key members of the Palestinian cultural scene such as Mahmoud Darwish and Ismail Shammout and those in charge of cultural and educational centres to present a sophisticated intellectual understanding of israel’s attempt to destroy Palestinian identity and the resistance to it. It has not been screened since its premier at Leipzig in 1983.

Culture Darwish Shammout PLO