Why Did We Plant Roses?

Sweden, Palestine, Jordan, France / Arabic, English / 70 min

Director: Ayed Nabaa

Producer: Mohanad Salahat

Synopsis:

Why Did We Plant Roses? is a feature-length documentary film, offering a journey through the life and experience of Iraqi filmmaker, Kassem Hawal. Kassem left his country for fear of dictatorship and love for cinema, to travel to a new country where both war but also the winds of change were actually taking place. He became one of the most active and prominent founders of what has been called, in retrospect, the Cinema of the Palestinian Revolution. For over 15 years, spanning the period going from 1970 to 1983, the latter movement gathered a collection of visual documents on the life and struggle of Palestinian refugee communities who were, at the time, in need of support and fighting for their identity.

Director:

Ayed Nabaa

Ayed Nabaa, born in Amman in 1981, is a Jordanian-Palestinian-French filmmaker currently based in France. In 2003, he graduated from the Fine Arts Faculty in Jordan (cinema department). He has mainly worked as a freelancer, writing and directing documentaries focusing on Arab culture, daily life, and politics, such as Against the Wall, Born in 48, Ryuichi Hirokawa Witness from the East. His film Sunbird received the Ibn Batutta Originality Award in FDEO Tangier/Morocco 2016 and the Grand Prize at AFIFDOK Khouribga/Morocco 2017.

Producer:

Mohanad Salahat 

Mohanad Salahat is an independent Palestinian-Swedish writer, filmmaker, who has been active in the filmmaking industry since 2006. He is best known for his short film Letter to Obama and for his documentary the Witness. Most recently he has been actively researching the history of Palestinian cinema and has published several articles in many notable publications. He currently divides his time between Europe and the Arab world, where he continues to work as a freelance filmmaker.