Doha Film Institute
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A man arrives in his native Jaffa after the sudden death of his uncle, who was kept in a mental hospital for over 25 years. Like a lurking shadow, the man would only occasionally visit his family back home—but this trip quickly leads him into an oscillation between the present crisis and memories from the last 70 years.
“K.” arrives in his native Jaffa after the disappearance of “M.” Like a lurking shadow, “M.” would only occasionally visit his family home— mostly over weekends—and would sometimes disappear for long periods of time. The visits he pays to hospitals and ministries in search for him prove futile, albeit for the fact that they drive him into a sort of labyrinth inside the Tel Aviv of today. But this is just one illustration of the extent to which the lines between the real and the fictitious are totally blurred. When “K.” finds a trace of “M.” in the background of an Israeli fiction film as he accidentally roams the street behind the shooting locale, the haziness between fiction and reality is accentuated further. Meanwhile, in the streets, “K.” watches a film crew as they prepare a real-time explosion to destroy the last iconic building left in Jaffa.

Credits

Director
Kamal Aljafari
Screenwriter
Kamal Aljafari
Producer
Kamal Aljafari

About the Director

Kamal Aljafari
Kamal Aljafari is a Palestinian filmmaker and artist. His films have screened at major festivals and museums, including Locarno, London, Viennale, and the 35th Bienal de São Paulo. He has received prestigious awards from FIDMarseille, Pesaro and Visions du Réel. In 2024, IndieLisboa hosted a full retrospective of his work. Aljafari has taught at The New School and DFFB in Berlin, and was a Film St