The Municipality of Alexandroupoli refuses to screen a film by a Palestinian director
The city's Peace Committee had planned to screen an anti-war film at the Municipal Library as a show of support for the people of Palestine. The municipal authority, however, "identified with the pro-Israeli line of the government", backed out by refusing to make the space available.
For censorship, as a result of its identification with the line of the government, denounces the municipal authority of Alexandroupolis the Peace Committee of Alexandroupolis, which had planned to screen a film by a Palestinian director in the Municipal Library, with the consent of the municipality, however, as it says, in the process there was a refusal of the municipal authority and forced change of venue.
Specifically, the Commission states: "Change of venue due to the refusal of the municipal authority to screen the film in the Municipal Library, although there was an initial agreement. It seems that the content of the initiative taken by the Alexandroupolis Peace Committee to screen the film "3,000 Nights" by the Palestinian director Mai Masri, as an expression of solidarity with Palestine and against the involvement of our country, is disturbing. The municipal authority is in line with the government's line, which wants to impose silence on every voice and every body that dares to defend the just struggle of the Palestinian people and opposes Greece's involvement in planning and wars that have nothing to do with the real interests of our people, while at the same time putting all our lives at risk."
The fact that this is a clearly anti-war film that condemns the illegal practices of the Israeli army under international law makes it all the more valuable. Layal Asfour, the heroine of the film, a young Palestinian school teacher, is arrested by the Israelis on the charge of allegedly harbouring a young Palestinian man classified as a 'terrorist' and is forcibly and summarily taken to an Israeli prison.
The revelation of her pregnancy does not deter her persecutors in the least. Layal will be forced to give birth in prison, where Noor will live by her side for 24 months. The Israelis will forcibly take the baby boy away from his mother when he is two; Layal will continue to resist behind bars together with her fellow countrywomen prisoners.
The film was shot in 2015, with filming taking place in France and Palestine. It is not the first time that the film has been screened in Greece, as it was also shown in 2018 at "Alcyonida" under the auspices of the Diplomatic Mission of the State of Palestine in Athens, on the initiative of the Federation of Women of Greece (FWG), which wanted to express its solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and especially the women.
These neo-macartesian practices, as denounced, come at a time when the film has become more meaningful, as the unprecedented in history Israeli operations in Gaza, the bombing of the Al-Ahli Arab hospital with 500 dead, make this film, which was also Mai Masri's debut on the big screen, more than timely, a fact that unfortunately seems to have left the officials of the Public Library unmoved.
efsyn.gr
