Houses Without Foundations: On Belonging in Palestinian Women’s Cinema

Colleen Jankovic

doi:10.4000/eces.1827

Abstract

This article analyzes several Palestinian women’s films, in which damaged or compromised (occupied, besieged) houses nevertheless serve as the grounds for building a sense of home, claiming belonging, and fostering collectivity. Using the house as both a figural and a material frame for exploring how Palestinian women filmmakers posit questions of sociality and collectivity in constrained contexts of dispossession, dispersion, and siege, this article argues that films such as Annemarie Jacir’s 2008 Salt of This Sea and Alia Arasoughly’s 2006 short The Clothesline envision forms of belonging that defy conventional national modes. To account for these alternative forms of belonging and unbelonging, the article draws from queer diasporic, queer of color, and women of color feminist critiques, ultimately arguing that these films posit neither a clear politics of resistance nor a hopeful vision of future possibilities, but rather compel a persistent internal critique of community-building, nation/home, and solidarity.

Highlights

PALESTINIANAS Resumo: O presente artigo analisa vários filmes de mulheres palestinianas, nos quais casas embora danificadas ou em risco servem como motivo para a criação de um sentimento de lar, a reivindicação de um sentido de pertença e o desenvolvimento de uma coletividade
A voice-over track suggests a conflict that might be spoken to a lover – why did you make me wait? This seemingly personal narrative dissolves into one more obviously related to the siege, indicating that house searches have begun – when will they get to mine? What will they find? The sound track bridges the interior and exterior image tracks, making the violence implied by the psychological siege and confinement to the home more legible
The odd mix of anxiety, boredom, and fear of military-imposed curfew transforms the way the woman lives in her home – tightly framed shots emphasize the constraint of her predicament

Summary

Introduction

PALESTINIANAS Resumo: O presente artigo analisa vários filmes de mulheres palestinianas, nos quais casas embora danificadas ou em risco (ocupadas, cercadas) servem como motivo para a criação de um sentimento de lar, a reivindicação de um sentido de pertença e o desenvolvimento de uma coletividade.

Results

Conclusion