O, Persecuted (2014)
Basma Alsharif
O, Persecuted, Basma Alsharif, Palestine/Germany, digital, 11.5 min, 2014
O, Persecuted turns the act of restoring Kassem Hawal’s militant Palestinian film Our Small Houses (1974) into a performance possible only through film. One that involves speed, bodies, and the movement of the past into a future that collides ideology with escapism.
Alsharif diagnoses a troubling uncertainty and disengagement in youth which slingshots from the past to the present day.—James Hansen
Streaming Details
This film is available to stream globally.
Program Partners
This film is co-presented with Artcite Inc.
Image credits: all artworks, portraits, and stills courtesy the artist © Basma Alsharif.
About the artist
Basma Alsharif (Palestine/Germany) is a Palestinian artist and filmmaker who was born in Kuwait in 1983, raised between France and the USA, and who has been living and working nomadically between Gaza, Cairo, Beirut, Sharjah, Amman, Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin since 2007. Her work in photography, cinema, and installation looks at cyclical political conflicts and the legacy of colonialism through satirical, immersive, and lyrical works in relation to shifting geopolitical landscapes and natural environments, advancing a “notion of a Palestinian perspective, a gaze steeped in history and splintered by geography” (Eyal Silvan). She received an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2007). Her work has been exhibited globally at venues including the 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Biennial, Berlin Documentary Forum, de Appel Amsterdam, Manifesta 8, Locarno Film Festival, Mar del Plata Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. She was awarded a jury prize at the 9th Sharjah Biennial, a Marion MacMahon Award from Images Festival, an honourable mention and a second prize at Media City Film Festival, and was nominated for the 2024 Prix AWARE. She was a resident of Fondazione Antonio Ratti in 2009, Palais de Tokyo in 2014–15, and was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Program from 2022–2023. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.