Origin: U.K. | Documentary | Director: Theo Panagopoulos | 17 minutes

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The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing

Theo Panagopoulos (who has a Greek father, a Lebanese-born mother and Palestinian grandparents) lives and works in Scotland, where he discovered two silent 16mm color films made in the 1930s and 1940s by a Scottish missionary who had decided to film the floral splendor of the Holy Land.

In Panagopoulos’ montage of this bucolic archive footage, he gradually zooms in on the Arab Palestinians who appear in the background. The result is an elegiac essay on the role of historical footage, over which the dark shadow of contemporary horrors inevitably looms.

WORLD PREMIERE – Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE — IDFA Film Festival 2024 – WINNER Best Documentary Short
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE — Sundance Film Festival 2025
Slamdance Film Festival 2025
London Short Film Festival 2025
Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival 2025 – Nominated for Best Short
Vera Film Festival 2025
Glasgow Short Film Festival 2025
Salem Film Festival 2025
Movies that Matter Festival 2025
ZagrebDox 2025
Go Short 2025
Festival Cine Palestine 2024

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