Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege

by Abdallah Al-Khatib
Little Palestine poster
Product Availability
Institutional, Community Screenings, Educational, Festivals, VOD
About the Film

In his directorial debut, LITTLE PALESTINE, DIARY OF A SIEGE, filmmaker Abdallah Al-Khatib offers a glimpse into the daily life of the residents of Yarmouk, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the world.

Home to thousands of Palestinians, Yarmouk was seized in 2015 by ISIS/Daesh in alliance with al-Nousra. Syrian government forces retaliated to the siege with indiscriminate shelling of the camp that provoked widespread outcry against the loss of civilian lives and the destruction of the refugee camp. Yarmouk was cut off from electricity, leaving Palestinian refugees in an even more vulnerable and embattled state.

With the help of his friends, Al-Khatib portrays the ordinary lives of Yarmouk’s residents in the years leading up to the siege, as they persevere with dignity, love and hope amid a never-ending state of war.

2021  ·  1h29m  ·  France, Lebanon, Qatar
Arabic
English, French subs
Festivals and Awards
2023
Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal, Focus Bidayyat Section
2022
Toronto Palestine Film Festival, Official Selection
2022
Cinéma sous les étoiles, Official Selection
2022
Festival cinéma du monde de Sherbrooke, Official Selection
2021
Guanajuato International Film Festival, Best International Documentary Feature
2021
Filmfest Hamburg, Commerzbank Audience Award
2021
Vancouver International Film Festival , Impact Audience Award
2021
Festival de Cinéma en ville!, Quebec City, Jury Prize: International Competition
2021
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Ogawa Shinsuke Prize
2021
Mostra – São Paulo IFF, Honorable Jury Mention
2021
Palestine Cinema Days, Palestinian Sunbird Award for Best Documentary
2021
War on Screen Film Festival, Châlons-en-Champagne, Press Jury Award
2021
International Film Festival Innsbruck (IFFI), Best Film: Documentary Competition
2021
Visions du Réel, Montreal, Interreligious Award
2021
São Paulo International Film Festival, New Directors Competition
2021
Torino Film Festival, Gandhi's Glasses Award
2021
ACID Cannes, Selected for the ACID (Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema) programme
2021
Visions du Réel, Montreal, World Premiere
Screenings
November 17, 2023
Cinema Politica Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
November 15, 2023
Cinema Politica Fredericton (Fredericton, Canada)
November 15, 2023
Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal (Montreal, Canada)
April 24, 2023
Cinema Politica Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
November 22, 2022
Cinema Politica Calgary (Calgary, Canada)
September 25, 2022
Toronto Palestine Film Festival - Toronto Premiere (Toronto, Canada)
August 2, 2022
Cinéma sous les étoiles (Montreal, Canada)
April 10, 2022
Festival cinéma du monde de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, Canada)
March 21, 2022
Cinema Politica Concordia (Montreal, Canada)
Credits
Director
Abdallah Al-Khatib
Writer
Abdallah Al-Khatib
Editor
Qutaiba Barhamji
Artistic Advisor
Ahmad Amro
Cinematography
Basel Abdullah, Abdallah Al-Khatib, Majd M.A. Almassri, Yahya Diaa, Mohamad R.M. Hamid, Qusai Abu Qasem, Mouayad Zaghmout
Sound design and mix
Pierre Armand
Sound editing mix studio
Studio Lemon
Colour grading
Michael Derrosset
Producers
Mohammad Ali Atassi, Jean-Laurent Csinidis
Production companies
Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts, Films de Force Majeure
Production manager
Nora Bertone

“Little Palestine is a testament to the spirit of the besieged”

“Al-Khatib’s commentary, replete in metaphors, imageries and allegories, lends an additional layer of poignancy to the already distressing scenes he captures on screen”

"Abdallah al-Khatib's Little Palestine offers a stark, yet beautiful, view of life inside Syria's Yarmouk refugee camp"

About the Director

Abdallah Al-Khatib

Abdallah Al-Khatib was born in 1989 in Yarmouk. He studied sociology at the University of Damascus. Before the revolution, he worked for the UN as coordinator of activities and volunteers. He created the humanitarian aid association Wataad, with several friends, which carried out dozens of projects in several regions of Syria, and in particular in Yarmouk. He participated in several documentary films relating the life of the Yarmouk camp, notably being one of the cameramen of 194. Us Children of the Camp which premiered at Visions du Réel in 2017. The German magazine Peace Green identified him as one of the 2014 “peacemakers”. In Sweden, he received the Per Anger Human Rights Award in 2016. Abdallah currently lives in Germany, where he was recently granted refugee status.

 

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