Origin: Palestine | Documentary | Director: Assem Nasser | 4 minutes

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From Ramallah
by Assem Nasser, docudrama Palestine 2013 4 min.
(from the collction ‘Suspended Time’
A document written in 1922 by a British military governor in Mandatory Palestine explains the reasons for choosing the particular location for building a prison for the Palestinian revolutionaries. Today the Palestinian Authority presidential compound known as the Moqataa stands in that very same location.
The legend has it that a Roman woman was running the largest brothel in the region that stood where today’s Moqataa is. The Roman army commanders would meet there and discuss army matters. Eventually, the mistress and the women of the brothel learned all the army secrets. The Roman governor ordered the brothel to be destroyed and all the women were brutally killed. The legend goes on to say that for a long time shrieks and voices could be heard coming out of the site of the massacre. No one dared to go near.

About the Filmmaker: Asem Naser is a student of visual arts at the International Art Academy Ramallah. Over the years he has worked as a photographer and graphic designer. His works begin from personal, but universal questions, and challenge all that is sacred so as to reveal a small part of the truth, which for most of the time is grotesque. His works are often narrative, and deal with legends as mirrors of all the unspoken corners of reality. Visually, he juxtaposes the narrative with abstract images in order to place the audience within the world of the legends.