MARCH 18 | 7pm | TERRAÇO DO GRAAL
LET’S SEE A MOVIE AND TALK ABOUT IT
In a partnership with Frames of Palestine (Cinelab/IFILNOVA/FCSH), Associação Graal and Galeria Monumental, we screen AIDA RETURNS, by Carol Mansour, with a light meal and an informal exchange after the screening
Free entry, but please register your interest HERE
AIDA RETURNS
Carol Mansour
Palestina | Doc | 2023 | 76’
Subtitled in Brazilian Portuguese
Aida was born March 18, 1927, in Yafa, Palestine. On March 18, 2024, join Aida as she defies all obstacles and returns to her homeland. To celebrate her birthday, this film will be screened in Lisboa, Barcelona, Córdoba, Madrid, Beirute, Cairo, Londres, Paris e Toronto.
This film is a poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of a multiple journey: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggled with losing herself to Alzheimer’s disease, but finding solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa and Palestine of her youth; the journey of the loss of a parent; and the ultimate return journey back to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest and be herself once more.
Close to four years after Aida’s passing away, the director’s friend and colleague Tanya who lives in Jerusalem came to visit Beirut. When she heard about Aida’s wishes and yearning for Yafa, Tanya suggested that she herself carries the ashes back. The film accompanies director Carol Mansour as she engineers a way to return her mother to Yafa in search of eternal rest and peace for her. A return that is aided by an unlikely set of friends and strangers all coming together to facilitate what should have been a simple journey. This journey is at the same time very private and personal, while resonating with hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families as well as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees awaiting their return home.
This film 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.
CAROL MANSOUR is an independent documentary film maker with over 25 years in documentary production who has achieved international recognition and honor for her films, with over seventy worldwide film festival screenings and official selections worldwide. Her films have won numerous prestigious awards.
Carol’s work reflects her concern for human rights and social justice, covering issues such as migrant workers, refugees, environmental issues, mental health, rights of the disabled, war and memory, right to health, and child labor.
Carol is Lebanese/ Canadian of Palestinian origin.
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Terraço do Graal
Rua Luciano Cordeiro 24, 6ºA, Lisboa
Free entry, but please register your interest HERE
Food is also free but we appreciate a donation
Screening organized by Olhares do Mediterrâneo (CRIA), colectivo Frames of Palestine (Cinelab/IFILNOVA/FCSH), Galeria Monumental and Associação Graal.
