In late Lebanese filmmaker and war reporter Jocelyne Saab’s 1982 film Beirut My City, she can be seen standing in front of her house after it was bombed and destroyed. Belgium-based Palestinian filmmaker Mohanad Yaqubi (R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity, Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory) can relate — his family’s house in Gaza was bombed in April 2024. It is just one connection between the two. Another is an invitation that Yaqubi received from the female pioneer to collaborate just two months before she died, which he didn’t answer at the time. So it’s perhaps fitting that Yaqubi decided to explore the work of Saab during her first…
