Palestine Cinema Days: Aida Returns

Palestine Cinema Days in Amsterdam

On the somber anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, observed on November 2nd, and in an effort to amplify Palestinian voices, we are screening “Aida Returns” directed by Carol Mansour at 8:00 p.m. at Cinema de Vlugt, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The screening is free of charge.

أيّام فلسطين السينمائيّة في أمستردام

في ذكرى وعد بلفور، التي تصادف الثاني من تشرين الثاني/نوفمبر، وحرصاً منا على إيصال الأصوات الفلسطينية، نعرض فيلم “عائدة” للمخرجة “كارول منصور”  في تمام الساعة الثامنة مساءً، في “سينما دي فلوخت”، أمستردام، هولندا.

العرض مجاني.

Op de sombere herdenking van de Balfour-verklaring, en in een poging om Palestijnse stemmen te versterken, vertonen we op de 2 november de film “Aida Returns”, geregisseerd door Carol Mansour om 20:00 uur in Cinema de Vlugt. De vertoning is gratis toegankelijk.

About the film:
This is a sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of multiple journeys: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggled with Alzheimer’s disease finding solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa of her youth; the journey of losing a parent; and the ultimate return journey to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest.

After her mother’s passing, director Carol Mansour, met friends in Beirut willing to carry Aida back with them to Palestine. The film accompanies Carol as she engineers a way to return her mother aided by an unlikely set of friends and strangers coming together to facilitate what should have been a simple journey. This journey is at the same time very private and yet universal. It is a tribute to the lost past of the director’s family, an attempt to restore part of both an individual and a collective memory, and a poetic nod and affirmation to all those exiled Palestinians forbidden from returning to their hometowns, even after death.