Thakira Mathkouba

Perforated Memory retraces the steps of the fedahin at different moments of the Palestinian resistance. Today, these men and women are old, sick, disabled and poor. Some spent long years in Israeli prisons, others returned from combat mutilated. Now they are forced to fight for their rights to a pension and health care. The associations where they meet up possess nonetheless a hidden treasure: they are places of memories, a living memory of the Palestinian resistance movement that finds expression nowhere else. With its long static and well-composed shots of individuals inserted into sequences of group discussions, the editing of Perforated Memory reflects the dispersion and isolation of these all-important witnesses, who are as alone in their present old age as they were in their past combats. (Yann Lardeau)