Origin: Lebanon | Fiction | Director: Kassem Hawal | 85 minutes

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Return to Haifa

Kasem Hawal's adaptation of the Ghassan Kanafani novella Return to Haifa is a rarely seen gem. Kanafani's seminal allegorical story tells of Safia and Saeed, who are forced by gunfire and artillery to leave their 5month old son Khaldoun in the city of Haifa when they are expelled in April 1948.

Twenty years on, with the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the couple are able to travel to Haifa. They discover that Khaldoun, now Dov, was adopted by Jewish immigrants arriving in 1948, and - now 20 - has recently enlisted in the Israeli army.

The story, and the film - which remains true to Kanafani's style and purpose - proceeds to pursue impossible questions - who is the real mother? Who is the real father? What is a homeland, and whose is it? And, finally, what is the way to Return to Haifa.

About the director Kassem Hawal (Iraq)
Kassem Hawal is an award winning Iraqi director currently based in the Netherlands. He was born in 1940 in Al Basra, Iraq. He studied theater acting and directing at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. He left Iraq in 1970 and traveled to Lebanon and Syria, where he focused on the making of political films. He has also worked on films by the PLO. He directed 28 documentaries and five features. Very active in the arts and culture in the Arab world, he was rewarded with honour in several film festivals, cultural and none cultural organizations, for his role in the Arabic and humanitarian culture.

For more information about the movie go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Returning_to_Haifa.
And for an interview with the director (in Dutch): https://filmkrant.nl/interview/kassem-hawal-films.

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