Palestine returns to Sardinia, a festival organized by the Cultural Association Amicizia Sardegna Palestina ODV with the patronage of the Municipality of Cagliari.

Now in its 10th edition, on July 17th and 18th, at the Lazzaretto space in Via dei Navigatori n.1 in Cagliari, two days packed with events and meetings to introduce the Sardinian population to a part of Palestinian culture and, at the same time, promote a comparison with the artistic and cultural expressions of Sardinia. This year two special guests: Yousri Alghoul, a Palestinian writer, essayist, and cultural activist born in 1980 in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, a graduate of al-Azhar University in Gaza, and a genocide survivor; and Samih Almadhoun, a young musician from Gaza who recently left the Strip and is a student at the Conservatory, who will perform in Cagliari for the first time.

"The aims of this tenth edition are once again to introduce the Sardinian population to a part of Arab culture, specifically Palestinian," explains Fawzi Ismail, president of the Association. "The two-day event will feature a short literary review with presentations of works by Arab authors and writers and essayists who have written about Palestine and the Middle East, a preview screening of an Arab-Palestinian film, a theater performance, and a concert featuring local artists. We want to explore some themes in Palestinian literature and cinema, which at this moment in history remind us, through the powerful firsthand accounts of authors and directors, some of whom survived the massacre, what it means to live in Gaza, amidst an ongoing genocide, under Israel's colonial offensive. The review is an opportunity to reflect on what is happening, thus preventing us from looking away in solidarity and support for the Palestinian people."

The program of the two days

The event kicks off on Friday the 17th at 6:30 pm, with an introduction by Fawzi Ismail and a presentation of the book "They Killed Habibi," by Shrouq Aila, edited by Ibtissam Jayed. Shrouq Aila, an award-winning journalist, tells us what it means to still live in Gaza through her story, that of a woman trying to raise a daughter alone, in the grip of famine and under the fire of relentless Israeli bombardment. "They Killed Habibi" is also a testament to human resilience and the courage of a people whose determination to rebuild their future from the rubble remains unwavering. Readings of selected passages are by Guido Cadoni.

At 7:30 pm, there will be a presentation of the book "The Rose of Gaza," featuring one of the authors, Luca Crastolla, in conversation with Aldo Nicosia, writer and professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Bari, and a jury member at the Verona African Film Festival and the International Documentary Festival in Khourigba, Morocco. The book gives voice to ten Palestinian women—students, professionals, mothers—who share their insider accounts of the daily experience of siege, war, and survival.

Following this, the presentation of the book Nel dolore di Gaza (In the Pain of Gaza) will be held, with author Yousri Alghoul in conversation with Claudia Ortu, professor of English at the University of Cagliari. The book, written during one of the most violent and destructive phases of the colonial offensive against the Palestinian population of the Strip, is presented neither as a diary nor as a structured chronicle of events, but as a collection of testimonies born from lived experience and transformed into words and images.

The evening concludes at 9:30 pm with a screening of To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel, a Danish-Palestinian director who graduated from the UK's National Film & TV School in 2009. After its screening in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, the film has garnered 30 international awards and toured 150 festivals in 60 countries. It has received accolades from figures such as Ken Loach, and praise for its candid and direct depiction of the existential condition of individuals who find themselves seeing their very identity waver, suspended in a limbo without a homeland and no known destination.

The exhibition will open on Saturday, July 18th , at 6:30 pm, with the presentation of the dossier "Suffocating the War Machine" by the Young Palestinians of Italy.

Following, a presentation of Walid Daqqa's book, "The Secret of Oil and the Sword," edited by Aldo Nicosia in conversation with Omar Suboh. The volume brings together two stories written in prison by Palestinian martyr Walid Daqqa (1961-2024): "The Secret of Oil," 2018, and "The Secret of the Sword," 2021. The secrets contained in oil and the sword become keys to understanding cultural roots and identity, to be passed on to new generations. With these two stories, Daqqa expresses the creativity of a fiction that mimics life, and vice versa, and thus affirms Palestinian resistance to occupation and the ongoing genocide.

At 8 pm, the theatrical monologue, freely adapted from the book Su Pessotimista by M. Bakri, will be performed, featuring journalist and television host Guido Cadon. Su Pessotimista is the translation into Campidanese Sardinian by Michele Zurru, under the supervision of Wasim Dahmash, essayist, teacher, and translator from Arabic to Italian, of the theatrical monologue al-Mutasha'il by Mohammad Bakri, itself inspired by the famous character created by Palestinian writer Emil Habibi in the novel Il pessotimista. In this irreverent and mocking monologue, the pessotimist recounts the strange adventures that have led him to live like those invisible Palestinians, still in Palestine, who pretend to be docile and naive, spend their lives enduring and struggling, but ultimately must deal with their children's rebellion.

As every year, it will be possible, with a subscription of 15 euros, (booking by WhatsApp by July 16th at 333 260 2120) to participate in the Palestinian tasting dinner accompanied by the ISLA SOUND Dj Set & SISTA NAMELY and notes of Gaza with the Oud of Samih Al Madhoun.

The festival closes with a concert by Dr. Drer & Crc Posse, who present their new album "Fogu," a metaphor for fire to represent the energy Sardinia needs to recover.

The festival is sponsored by the Municipality of Cagliari; the musical direction is by Fabrizio Lai.

(Unioneonline)

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