The camera’s eye returns obsessively to the same places, a vertical perspective that imposes control, the possession of archaeological sites, stones lying for thousands years in the desert. The places it observes,
however, are not deserted: we see, as if glimpsed from afar, the peasants working the land, themselves transformed into landscape. Something disturbs the stillness of the place: explosions on land and in the sea prepare the ground for new cities with new names, new forests. This landscape is transformed into a scenography of appropriation. —Kamal AlJafari

Blending live action, special effects, private family photos and archival footage, the 'Familiar Phantom' explores the impact on fiction on the creation and reinterpretation of memory. The film is inspired by anecdotes from my family history and my old childhood in Bethlehem, making it my most personal film to date. Shot in a derelict mansion and a black studio, the film oscillates between slow, fluid exploratory sequences and fast-paced collages of objects, mementos, family photos and Super 8 footage, its visuals and editing mimicking the actual workings of memory, constantly revisiting the same imagery alongside new fragments in search of meaning – while alternating between storytelling and ruminations on memory.
—Larissa Sansour