Speak Image, Speak
Spring Grants 2024 - Development Stage
Pary El-Qalqili / Feature Experimental or Essay / Germany, Qatar / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic, German / Interests: Documentary
Synopsis
Palestinian history is largely ignored by the German public. After the attack by Palestinian assassins at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Arabs were generally regarded as a security risk. Palestinian associations and organizations were banned, and several hundred Arabs were deported in the weeks following the attack. Palestinians, in particular, were interrogated and kept under secret service surveillance. There is no visual narrative on the aftermath of the Olympia attack on Palestinian life, no oral history of the deportations. As a result of the persecution, the first generation in the diaspora still does not talk about their political activities in the 1970s, neither in public nor in private. Recently, the criminalization of Palestinians in public spaces has increased to an unprecedented level. Palestinian protest is largely banned and contested by police violence and mass arrests. Whereas the Palestinian past and present face invisibility, the figure of the Palestinian receives hyper-visibility as the embodiment of potential threat. ‘Speak Image, Speak’ explores Palestinian past and present in Germany with those who are not meant to speak up. The film sets out to interrupt, interrogate, and object to dominant image politics that degrade, demonize, and dehumanize Palestinians. In ten chapters—The Orient, Work, Desire, Threat, Danger, Humiliation, Shame, Resilience, Grief, Death—the film dissects visual fantasies about Palestinians and proposes a visual counter-memory, giving voice to a silenced history and challenging the narratives that have suppressed it.
Credits
- Director
- Pary El-Qalqili
- Screenwriter
- Pary El-Qalqili
- Producer
- Pary El-Qalqili
About the Director
Pary El-Qalqili is a writer, director, and producer based in Berlin. She works at the intersection of film, curation, and teaching. In her cinematic work, she explores nonlinear narratives that challenge hegemonic storytelling. By examining lives that have been disrupted, uprooted, colonized, and marginalized, she understands fragmentary narrative forms that embrace ruptures, gaps, and irritation as key to decolonizing not only our gaze but also our mind. Her first feature film, 'The Turtle's Rage,' premiered at the Visions du Réel Festival and received several awards at international film festivals. It was released in German cinemas in 2012. Her short film 'Neighbors,' co-directed with Christiane Schmidt, was nominated for the Award of the German Film Critic in 2019. In her teaching, she focuses on feminist and decolonial film history, theory, and practice..