Farha / فرحة

Slought and Palestine Writes announce a special screening of the groundbreaking Palestinian/Jordanian film Farha, followed by a discussion with director and writer Darin Sallam, on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 from 7-9:30pm. This event is free and open to the public, however registration via Eventbrite is required.

Farha is a 2021 internationally co-produced historical drama film about a Palestinian girl's coming-of-age experience during the Nakba, the 1948 displacement of Palestinians from their homeland. The film is directed by Darin J. Sallam, and is based on a true story recounted to Sallam's mother by a friend, living as a refugee in Syria, about her experience during the Nakba in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on 14 September 2021 and began streaming on Netflix on 1 December 2022. Farha was the winner of the Best Youth Feature Film category at the 2022 Asia Pacific Screen Awards and winner of the Best Feature Film at the Malmö Arab Film Festival, among other awards, and was Jordan's submission in the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards.

This event is organized in partnership with the upcoming Palestine Writes festival, which will take place at the University of Pennsylvania from September 22-24, 2023. Palestine Writes is the only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists. Born from the pervasive exclusion from or tokenization of Palestinian voices in mainstream literary institutions, Palestine Writes brings Palestinian cultural workers from all parts of Historic Palestine and our exiled Diaspora together with peers from other marginalized groups in the United States.