The checkpoint is closed: 'Detour, detour!' shouts a taxi driver, announcing the beginning of yet another uncertain search for a way around the barriers curtailing Palestinian movement in the West Bank. This film is a visceral 'road movie' that chronicles the daily travails of Palestinians of all backgrounds as they seek routes through, under, around, and over a bewildering matrix of barriers. Following this high stakes 'game' of cat and mouse with a handheld video camera, Khaled Jarrarʼs debut documentary was the standout success at the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival, winning the Muhr Arab Documentary Prize, the Special Jury Prize, and the International Critics Prize.

Khaled Jarrar works in photography, video and performance. His first exhibition, in 2007, took place in public space, at the Israeli military checkpoints of Huwwara and Qalandiya; here he presented photographs showing the daily adversity faced by Palestinians, who are not allowed to move freely. In 2012, Khaled Jarrar’s work was featured in the Dubai International Film Festival, UAE; Art and Life in Palestine, Qalandiya International, Palestine; Newtopia: The State of Human Rights, various venues, Mechelen, Belgium; Truth Is Concrete, Graz, Austria; Middle East Europe, SPACE, Bratislava, Slovakia; Berlin Biennale, Germany and Navigations: Palestinian Video Art, 1988–2011, Barbican Centre, London.

2012 | 1h 10min

Language: Arabic with English subtitles.