Synopsis
Life in the Nabatia refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, accompanied by a voice-over reading a letter written to a fedayeen (Palestinian fighter). A response to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who declared that the Palestinian people did not exist.
A word from Tënk
A landmark of Palestinian revolutionary cinema, They Do Not Exist is an essential work that combines a powerful political message with groundbreaking cinematic experimentation. Through innovative editing and musical sequences denouncing colonialist Western culture, Mustafa Abu Ali, one of the most important Palestinian filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s, responds to Golda Meir’s provocation.
Through scenes depicting the camps, Israeli raids, and military training, Abu Ali paints a vivid portrait of daily life and armed resistance. Yet he goes further, situating the Palestinian struggle within a universal fight against imperialism: genocides against Indigenous peoples, in Vietnam and Mozambique, and those perpetrated by Nazi Germany — Palestine is part of this history as well.
Charlotte Schwarzinger
PhD candidate and cultural programmer
Marion Slitine
Anthropologist and exhibition curator
