Bakri in Retrospect

The final night of Returns is dedicated to the late Mohammad Bakri (1953-2025), who has been a pillar of Palestinian cinema and theatre for over five decades. Bakri’s final two works confront the concept of legacy when situated in the ongoing struggle for Palestinian liberation. As these films reveal: to look back is to look around us, bearing witness to history repeating itself.

LE MONDE

Mohammad Bakri
2025 – Palestine – 6 min – No dialogue

A café-restaurant becomes the world in Bakri’s final work. At the back of a full house, a television mounted on the wall broadcasts the atrocities in Gaza while the customers of “Le Monde” are absorbed in their own circles. Only a 70-year-old man and his daughter seem to notice what’s on the screen.

JANIN JENIN

Mohammad Bakri
2024 – Palestine – 60 min – Arabic

Following the 2023 Zionist invasion of the Jenin refugee camp, director Mohammad Bakri returns after visiting two decades prior. Plenty has changed throughout these years punctuated by recurring invasions. Familiar faces and new, including Bakri, take to the lens to provide testimony in this haunting sequel to his 2002 documentary, Jenin, Jenin.

Pay-what-you-can at the door: all proceeds will be donated to the Sameer Project. Co-presented with Regards palestiniens, with the support of the Feminist Media Studio (Concordia University) and QPIRG Concordia, as part of Regards palestiniens: Returns.