LONDON: A documentary film co-produced by Palestinian model Anwar Hadid will be shown next month at San Carlo auditorium in Albenga, Italy.
Other producers on the project are Kweku Mandela, grandson of former South African president Nelson, and Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters.
The film, “Walled Off,” is written and directed by Vin Arfuso, an American filmmaker of Palestinian and Italian descent.
Referencing the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, owned and designed by British artists Banksy, the film underlines the importance of socially and politically engaged art.
The film follows Hadid, brother of models Bella and Gigi, as he explores Banksy’s hotel’s site-specific installations and storied halls with its head manager, Wissam Salsa.
Later scenes feature five decades of archival footage, with the goal of combating the narrative of Palestinian struggle in Western media while also anchoring Arafat as a symbol of national identity.
Last week, Arfuso shared a teaser on Instagram.
“Artists working in this realm strive to provide a counterpoint to the prevailing images of power and also to the stereotypes that are fed to us by the media,” the teaser said.
The iconic British street artist opened the Walled Off hotel in Bethlehem in 2017. Nestled against Israel’s separation barrier, which encloses occupied Palestine and annexes part of its land, Banksy has claimed it has the “worst view of any hotel in the world.”
The pre-release screening of Walled Off will take place on Sept. 8, as part of European artist-activist Cake$’s debut solo exhibition “A Child Is Born In Bethlehem.”
The exhibition has been curated by British-Palestinian art dealer, curator, activist and journalist Zayna Al-Saleh, and Italian art collector and curator Lorenzo Sibilla.
