January 4, 2022

Mizna Film Series Winter 2022: Palestine Focus, Route 181

by Lamia Abukhadra | in Film

The Mizna Film Series is a monthly selection of programs, marking our first venture into year-round curated film programming. While our annual Film Fest focuses primarily on the works of contemporary artists, the Mizna Film Series provides a space to expand our regular film programming to include screenings, critical essays, filmmaker interviews, and discussions exploring revolutionary forms of cinema from the SWANA region and beyond. This series is presented virtually and in-person in collaboration with Trylon Cinema. Learn more about the Mizna Film Series here.

To kick off the winter 2022 season, we present Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel, a three-part film with a focus on daily life in Palestine.

In the summer of 2002, Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi travel together from the south to the north of their country of birth; they traced their trajectory on a map and called it ROUTE 181. This virtual line follows the borders outlined in Resolution 181, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1947 to partition Palestine into two states.

As they travel, Khleifi and Sivan meet a multitude of characters, each of which has their own way of evoking the frontiers that separate them from their neighbors: concrete, barbed-wire, cynicism, humor, indifference, suspicion, aggression; frontiers have been built on the hills and in the plains, on mountains and in valleys but above all, in the collective unconscious of both societies.

Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel is divided into three parts. Mizna Film Series will screen all three parts between January and March, 2022. As always, the Mizna Film Series will screen monthly at the Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis, MN on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Each film will also screen online at our virtual cinema. Online screenings will be available to view only within the US.

Tickets + Passes

In-person Trylon tickets: $10
Virtual Tickets: Pay what you can, $5 suggested donation
Virtual Pass (3-pack) : $20

UPCOMING

January 26–30, 2022: THE SOUTH

From Ashdod to Gaza. Sivan and Khleifi begin their cinematic journey through the southern parts of Palestine-Israel, interviewing a juice seller, a candy seller, an engineer, and a manager, gaining perspectives from Israelis and Palestinians about everyday life. They visit a Kibbutz, they travel to Gaza, and they hear residents understandings of the Zionist project alongside discussions of Palestinians right to return. Their task as filmmakers is to document, to convey what is desired and what is experienced, to distinguish people’s dreams from political projects, to hear what one wants to forget, and to listen to the other–this is how the journey begins.

In-person screening of Part One of Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel takes place at Trylon Cinema on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 7pm.

Part One of Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel is available virtually January 27–30, 2022 in the US ONLY.

February 23-27, 2022: THE CENTER

From Lod City to the Jerusalem area. The second part of Route 181 begins in the Center for New Immigrants in Lod, as Russian musicians play melodies from Eastern Europe to greet new immigrants who have just arrived from Ethiopia. The scene is a bit chaotic, a bit mundane, and a bit perplexing. This part of the film discusses building settlements and the destruction of former towns and homes, encountering tourists, artists, scholars, and soldiers. Capturing the experiences of everyday people, this installment in the journey exposes the dangers and hope we might find in the historical narratives we tell.

In-person screening of Part Two of Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel takes place at Trylon Cinema on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at 7pm.

Part Two of Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel is available virtually February 24–27, 2022 in the US ONLY.

March 23-27, 2022: THE NORTH

From the city of Rosh HaAyin to the Lebanese border. In Rosh HaAyin, on the ruins of Majdal Sadek, a Jewish Yemenite jogger runs with his dog, and when approached by the filmmakers, he completely denies any destruction of Palestinian villages in 1948. In the North, Khleifi and Sivan drive on a brand new highway, alongside the new separation wall built to physically separate Palestinians and Israelis. Traveling through new settlements and the ruins of old villages, the filmmakers continue to interview residents with various ideologies and lives, examining the violence and mundane reality of settler colonialism. In this final section, the film ends on the border with Lebanon, gesturing toward the impact that 1947’s Resolution 181 has had on that country.

In-person screening of Part Three of Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel takes place at Trylon Cinema on Wednesday, March 23, 2022 at 7pm.

Part Three of Route 181: Fragments of a Journey In Palestine-Israel is available virtually March 24–27, 2022 in the US ONLY.