Synopsis
Return to Haifa is based on Kanafani’s novel the plot of which takes place in 1967, when Palestinian refugees living in the newly occupied territories had an opportunity to visit the places from which they had been expelled in 1948.
Return to Haifa
Countries
Language
Alternative Titles
Back to Haifa, The Return to Haifa, Retour à Haifa
Genre
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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State of Palestine
Releases by Country
State of Palestine
02 Jan 1982
- Theatrical
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Tense, heartbreaking. A complex, all too brief look at what such genocidal upheaval can do to a family. Very much deserves a restoration!
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the genocide of the palestinian people by israel has been going on for 75 years. this movie was made in 1982 but what the characters go through in the movie, palestinians were going through in 1982, and were going through in 1948, and are going through, now, in 2023, being bombed in darkness while the world sits and turns a blind eye, once again, for the 75th year.
edit: changing the tone of my review. israel and its barbaric, depraved crimes deserve to be called put for what they are, especially with major news outlets only using passive voice to dehumanize palestinians and decriminalize zionists.
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Apart from being as prescient and relevant as ever in the way of understanding the multidimensional struggle, Kanafani’s immortalised contribution through Iraq’s brilliant Kassem Hawal’s directorship presents a potent piece of cinema that is harrowing and inspiring. I couldn’t be prouder that this was all filmed in Tripoli and its surrounding regions, with an uncompromising devotional support from North Lebanese as well as Palestinians. An excerpt from Nadia Yaqub’s ‘Palestinian Cinema in the Days of Revolution’ about this film reads:
“According to the PFLP’s own news reports, participating in the film was a meaningful experience for the Palestinians and Lebanese of North Lebanon. A number reported feeling a sense of accomplishment at the opportunity to contribute directly to a Palestinian…
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Kassem Hawal directs a 72 minute drama film, about man...well, returning to Haifa! Also still looking for his long lost son.
If you were a fan of the Iranian film, The Survivor (1995) directed by Seifollah Dad, you may get on with Hawal's film.
And I think by seeing both, that I have a much greater understanding of the two films as a result.
And I feel they're equally moving, maybe with this one being more concise but no less political.
Both are melodramas, but reigned in enough.
This one takes a more documentary-esque approach and moreso that Seifollah's film has this kind of understanding that events are bigger than the people here, Jewish or Arabic they get a voice,… -
we left the keys in the doors, the pictures hanging on the walls, but we didn't leave our memories.
you can watch it here (with english subtitles)!
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It’s difficult for me to fathom being run out of my home, much less my family’s generational home, by men with guns and tanks, driven off the land, and barred from returning for twenty years.
Nor can I picture myself stealing someone else’s home and calling it mine. Homes full of pictures and keepsakes and closets full of clothes and rooms full of toys because everyone had to run for their lives under gunfire and explosions. How could you live with yourself?This alternates between the Nakba of 1948 and 1967 with scenes of displacement interspersed. The copy I got was probably ripped from a VHS recording and I was wondering if there was a better version out there. This certainly deserves a restoration.
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This PLO-affiliated adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani’s novel feels like a TV movie initially, until it abruptly doesn’t! It’s loyal to the source material and the melodrama is ungainly at times, but these are also functions of an uncommon urgency that ultimately gives the film its power. Hawwal is attentive to the precariousness of his Israeli subjects too, which only multiplies the human toll of the Nakba depicted here
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Kasim Hawal is one of the pre-eminent directors of the PLO film unit. All of his movies and archives were snatched in 1982 by the IDF after the invasion of Beirut.
I was at a screening where the director was talking about his working methods, his assistant director role under Pasolini, and he noted that whilst Pasolini created art for a spectator called Pasolini, Hawal was forced to create art to reflect an accurate image of the whole of Palestine.
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Comme si avoir pleuré en plein milieu du cours d’hida après l’avoir lu était pas suffisant… عائد إلى حيفا est une des œuvres littéraires majeures du XXe siècle et je pense que cette adaptation, avec les choix de rajouts que Hawal a faits (les parallèles avec les pogroms par exemple) a parfaitement transmis la vision avant-gardiste, sincère, et si justement ciblée de Ghassan Kanafani.
عاشت فلسطين، عاشت فلسطين، من النهر إلى البحر الأمس، اليوم و الغد، إلى أن يطرد الغازي المتطفل الصهيوني