Writers on the Borders
Documentary film by Samir Abdallah and Jose Reynes
80 minutes , 2002
Following an appeal by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish,
founding member of the International Parliament of Writers
besieged at Ramallah, a delegation of writers traveled to
the city to demonstrate alongside the Palestinians a “ fine
example of linguistic collaboration”, in this “high place of
spirituality” ( Ramalllah).
We want to listen to, and make heard, other voices above the
capharnum of war, those of writers, artists, academics, all
those who are preparing the future…We have to oppose the
logic of war not with a force of intervention but with
“Forces of Interpretation” writes the French writer
Christian Salmon, member of the international delegation
made up
of the American Russel Banks, the Nigerian Wole Soyinka, the
Portuguese Jose Saramago, the Chinese Bei Dao, the South
African Breten Breytenbach, the Spaniard Juan Goytisolo, the
Italian Vincenzo Consolo.
Writers on the Borders – A journey to Palestine – is the
travel diary of this delegation accompanied by Elias Sanbar
and Leila Shahid.
Mahmoud Darwish “ we suffer from an incurable malaise called
hope. Hope for liberation and independence. Hope for a
normal life, where we will be neither heros nor victims.
Hope to see our children go to school with no danger. Hope
for a pregnant women to see her newly born alive in a
hospital and not dead at a checkpoint. Hope that our poets
will see the beauty of the colour red in the roses rather
than in the blood. Hope that this land will recover its
original name ‘land of love and peace”.
