English & Comparative Literary Studies - Events Calendar
Wednesday, February 04, 2026
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PLCRG event - "A Biography of Palestinian Cinema", featuring Saleem Albeik (novelist & critic)S0.10 (Social Sciences Building)Come join us in what promises to be a convivial and engaging talk and discussion about Palestinian cinema, featuring the Palestinian novelist and film critic Saleem Albeik.
Abstract: This talk is based on the author鈥檚 recent book Biography of Palestinian Cinema: Limitations of Spaces and Characters, published (in Arabic) by the Institute of Palestine Studies (2025), which narrates the story of feature films made by Palestinians between two axial events in Palestinian history: The 鈥淪tones Intifada鈥� (1987-1991) and the current genocidal war (2023- ). The book outlines the national context before commencing its story, reading cinema as responding to the political conditions of the Palestinian people and arguing that the Al-Aqsa [Second] Intifada (2000-2005) generated a transformation in that cinema.
The book critically examines a principal aspect of Palestinian cinema: its imposed limitations regarding space and casting, ascribing these limitations to the conditions of colonial occupation, settlement, policies and institutions. Limited space led to limited casting opportunities, and these in turn affected the chances of achieving the aims of a particular film. Such limitations constitute a structural condition of Palestinian cinema in general, though certain films became exceptions that proved the rule. Those films in which cast members rebelled against imposed limitations of space were instrumental in helping to liberate their participants, who thus evolved as dramatic figures themselves.
The book discusses 57 feature films and attempts to show how each one dealt with the presence of limitations and their five manifestations, dubbed with - what the author calls - the five jims (referring to the Arabic letter "J"): Soldier (jundi), Jeep, Checkpoint (hajiz), Jail (sijn), and Wall (jidar).
Since the Nakba of 1948, the history of the Palestinian people has been truly tragic, and catastrophes have elicited acts of heroism not lacking in tragedy. This history may be tracked through its various stages and in various depictions of and by the population, the cinema being one such depiction. Saleem Albeik鈥檚 book offers a history of that cinema within the historical context of the Palestine Question, attempting to present that history through its films.
The author: Saleem Albeik is a film critic and novelist. He has published two works of film criticism, Reflections on Palestinian Cinema (2023) and A Biography of Palestinian Cinema: Limitations of Spaces and Characters (2025). He has also published three novels: Two Tickets to Saffuriyya (2017), Scenario (2019), and The Eye of the Rooster (2022). Born to a refugee family, he currently lives in Paris, where he writes a weekly column on cinema and culture in the newspaper Al-Usbu` al-`Arabi. He founded the cultural magazine Rumman and acts as its editor.
For more information, contact Nadia.Backleh@warwick.ac.uk |
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