Chicago Palestine Film Festival - Fadia's Tree

FADIA’S TREE

2021, dir. Sarah Beddington
United Kingdom, 82 min.
In Arabic, English

While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. She challenges Sarah, the Director, to find an ancient mulberry tree that stands as witness to her family’s existence — with only inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon as her guides. Along the way, Sarah meets with ornithologists whose observations on the homing instincts of the birds highlight the unresolved problems of the region. Spanning fifteen years, this story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land and a fragmented people adopts a birds’ eye perspective to reflect on freedom of movement, exile and the hope of return.

Preceded by the short films:

FOREVER KHALED

2023, dir. Yousef Salhi, 9 min.

Khaled clashes with everyone he meets, his girlfriend Sophia tries to help him accept the reality and adapt, but all in vain.

MAR MAMA

2023, dir. Majdi El Omari , 16 min.

Haunted by her mother’s death and recurring attacks by Israeli forces on her city, a young girl becomes obsessed with death. To distract her, her father makes a stop-motion film. However, his attempts fail and the girl finds nothing other than imagination to escape from reality.