Kings and Extras (Palestine, 2004) dir. Azza El-Hassan

The films in the PLO Media Unit were supposed to show a self-determined image of Palestinian reality – and they went missing during the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982. In a « road movie » from Palestine to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, director Azza El-Hassan follows the contradicting and confusing clues as to the whereabouts of the lost archive. But, in her usual, inimitable way, she keeps finding people and places in the purest documentary style : finding myths, life stories, life lies - collecting the effects of defeat, loss, and pain. She even brings some humour to the tragedy of the situation with which she identifies and, at the same time, rejects