Origin: Palestine | Documentary | Director: Noor Abed | 22 minutes

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Our songs were ready for all wars to come (2021) is a 22-minute film of choreographed scenes based on documented folk tales from Palestine. It begins with four minutes of darkness and the haunting sound of a woman’s voice. The perforated edge of the film, occasionally silhouetted by flashes of light, highlights the nature of the work as a mediated document. Images of women performing draw connections between latent stories of water wells and communal rituals associated with disappearance, mourning and death. The only narration in the film is a song, which is sung by Palestinian singer Maya Khaldi. Its lyrics are a collage of different folk tales.

The film explores the critical stance of ‘folklore’ as a source of knowledge and its possible connection to alternative social and representational models in Palestine. How can folklore become a common emancipatory tool for people to overturn dominant discourses, reclaim their history and land, and rewrite reality as they know it?

Also read: https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2021/12/11/in-artist-noor-abeds-film-palestinian-tales-are-told-through-the-landscape/