A Space Exodus (dir. Larissa Sansour, 5 mins)
This film follows the artist herself onto a phantasmagoric journey through the universe echoing Stanley Kubrick's thematic concerns for human evolution, progress and technology. However, in her film, Sansour posits the idea of a first Palestinian into space, and, referencing Armstrong's moon landing, she interprets this theoretical gesture as "a small step for a Palestinian, a giant leap for mankind". The film quirkily sets up an adapted stretch of Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey in a Middle Eastern political context. The recognisable music scores of the 1968 science fiction film are changed to arabesque chords matching Sansour’s surreal visuals.

Nation Estate (dir. Larissa Sansour, 10 mins)
With a mixture of computer generated imagery, live actors and arabesque electronica, Nation Estate explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood. In Sansour’s film, Palestinians have their state in the form of a single skyscraper: the Nation Estate. One colossal high-rise houses the entire Palestinian population – now finally living the high life. Nation Estate offers a clinically dystopian, yet humorous approach to the deadlock in the Middle East.

In The Future They Ate From The Finest Porcelain (dir. Larissa Sansour, 29 mins)
A narrative resistance group makes underground deposits of elaborate porcelain for future archaeologists to excavate. Their aim is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands. By implementing a myth of its own, their work becomes a historical intervention – de facto creating a nation. In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain resides in the cross-section between sci-fi, archaeology and politics. Combining live motion and CGI, the film explores the role of myth for history, fact and national identity.

This screening will be followed by a discussion with film-maker Larissa Sansour.