Feast of the Inhabitants

11min | Language: Arabic with English subtitles

In Sansour’s take on the relation between food, politics and cultural identity, a group of Palestinians are gathered around a painterly selection of regional delicacies.

Around the table, a lively debate covers topics ranging from the best season for lamb’s meat to the multiple Catch 22’s of occupation by a power routinely classifying the Palestinians simply as the ‘Inhabitants of the Territories’ – granting them a more anonymous and legally obscure status than ‘citizens’ or ‘subjects’.

Filmed using three cameras on location in the West Bank over the course of an entire evening, Feast of the Inhabitants also raises questions about the nature of documentary. Hours of footage is seamlessly edited into what easily passes for an uninterrupted conversation.

Soup Over Bethlehem

9min | Language: Arabic with English subtitles

The film depicts an ordinary Palestinian family, Sansour's own, around a dinner table on a rooftop overlooking the West Bank city of Bethlehem. What starts as a culinary discussion about the national dish 'Mloukhieh' soon evolves into a personal and engaging conversation about politics - thereby emphasising the symbiosis of food and politics so indicative of the Palestinian experience.