Bahthan an Saris (2013)

Saris was a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem area that was ethnically cleansed in 1948 during the creation of the state of Israel. Today, it is inhabited by Israelis. Shifting between the stories of Saris refugees (young and old) in Qalandia Refugee Camp in the West Bank, stories of displaced Palestinian families in present-day Jerusalem, and fragments of a car journey by three refugees as they return to their village of origin, Searching for Saris is a film in search of the connections between past and present, and a testimony to on-going dispossession and to the persistent dream of return. Part metaphor, part physical journey, the search for Saris that gives the film its title, is in fact a search for a disappearing Palestine.