Leila And The Wolves (1984)
Dir. Heiny Srour, Unknown, Unknown
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Tue 10 September 2013 // 19:30
/ Cinema
As bold politically as it is
aesthetically, Leila and the Wolves is a signal work in the history of feminist
filmmaking in the Middle East. Using a compelling narrative structure, Srour
examines roles played by Palestinian and Lebanese women in their national
struggles. The eponymous Leila, an exiled curator preparing an exhibition of
Palestinian photography, serves as a launching pad for the film’s challenge to
erasures of Arab women from history. Leila looks to recentre women in Arab
history, yet she refuses to mimic a masculinised discourse of heroism in doing
so. Leila’s reflections gradually see this central character multiply and
migrate as she transcends a series of female roles, each of which reveal an
element of social oppression, sustain a call for resistance. Of this pursuit of
new narrative forms, Srour has commented: “Those of us from the third world
have to reject the idea of film narration based on the 19th century bourgeois
novels with its commitment to harmony. Our societies have been too lacerated
and fractured by colonial power to fit into those neat scenarios.”
Free screening, donations welcome.
Cinema membership is 1 pound.