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Stranger in My Home / Jerusalem
by Sahera Dirbas
Stranger in My Home – Jerusalem is the most recent work by filmmaker Sahera Dirbas, who lives in Jerusalem but hails originally from Haifa. It was released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza in June 1967.
The film relates the stories of eight Palestinian Jerusalemite families that have been turned refugees in their own city. They recall the events that occurred in the Moghrabi Quarter of Jerusalem during the 1967 war. Each family goes to see its house which was occupied in 1948. The houses are located in the Baqa’a, Talbiyeh, Qatamon and Mosrarah neighbourhoods of what is now West Jerusalem. Some of the families enter their former homes and have a discussion with the Israeli tenants currently occupying their homes.
The documentary film also includes an interview with the Israeli architect David Kroyanker who wrote books about these houses, one of which was turned into a museum.
The film premiered at the Palestinian National Theatre in Jerusalem and at the Cultural Palace in Ramallah. It participated in the third Al-Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival in Qatar in April 2007.
The documentary is an independent production on which all the crew members worked on a voluntary basis.
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