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Top Lebanese film-maker documents Israeli pogrom

This was the voice of a Palestinian woman mourning the deaths of her relatives in the camp of Sabra and Shatila massacre, with which Hicham Al Jurdi, a Lebanese film-maker, commenced his film, Sabra and Shatila: The Past Continues. about the brutal mass killings, which were carried out by the Israeli forces and targeted the two Palestinian camps in Beirut.

The film, which was created and presented at Institut du Monde Arabe or the Institute of the Arab World in Paris in September, 2002, will be screened today to mark the 21st anniversary of the massacres in Sabra and Shatila, which took place on September 16 in 1982 and continued for four days.

About 2400 people, mainly women, children were killed in the atrocious incident.

The 52-minute-film describes the feelings of the survivors.

"The indirect victims of the massacre should have an opportunity to express themselves, although fear silences some who had returned to the occupied Palestinian territories," said Mr Jurdi, a veteran cinema and TV director, who has produced a number of films and documentaries, including the famous La vie des abeilles (Life of Bees) on the Lebanese war in 1986.

He also has two documentaries in the making - La terre perdue (the Lost Land) and La maison aux cents visages (House with Hundred Visages).

In an interview with Khaleej Times, Mr Jurdi said the film opens windows of expression for victims who have lacked the opportunity to express themselves directly and who live forgotten, in profound misery and under threat of growing insecurity.

The Paris-based producer has also produced films with political dimensions for Arab and international TV channels such as the CNN, the NBC and Asahi (Japan).

Sabra and Shatila: The Past Continues casts a different light, one that respects the testimony of the survivors of the massacre for being victims with broken hearts, fixed memories and destroyed dreams.

Through the characters of the film, who are actual survivors of the massacre, Mr Jurdi has succeeded in reflecting an image about the suffering of the victims' relatives, their diaspora and dream to go back to their home country.

"I had preferred not to present the film as an investigation or documentary, especially as no probe, whether local or international, into the massacre had ever been conducted," said Mr Jurdi.

"My focus was the difficulties and sufferings encountered by Palestinian women, who had left the camp after the massacre and whether they had fulfilled the dream of going back to their home country," he said.

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