Jonathan Romney 

A World Not Ours – review

A documentary about a Palestinian refugee camp contrives to find humour amid the despair and disillusionment, writes Jonathan Romney
  
  

A World Not Ours
A World Not Ours: 'An intimate portrait of Ain el-Helweh refugee camp.' Photograph: PR

This very personal documentary is an intimate portrait of Ain el-Helweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon. Although born in Dubai and raised mainly in Denmark, Mahdi Fleifel has spent much of his life in Ain el-Helweh; the film records his childhood stays and subsequent visits there, and his relationships with residents.

They include his cantankerous grandfather, his irascible chicken-raising friend Saïd, and Bassam (aka Abu Iyad), whose increasing despair and disillusionment with the PLO make a poignant counterpoint to the generally positive tone. Along with its anger, Fleifel's revealing film contrives, against the odds, to derive everyday humour from the refugee experience.

 

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