7:30 on Wednesday, April 17th
Room 137 Isenberg School of Management
UMass Amherst
Bir’em
(2022, Camille Clavel, France, 75 min, Arabic w/ English subtitles)
Set in the north of Israel, the film follows Nagham, a Palestinian girl who decides to return to Bir’em, her family’s village that was destroyed during the 1948 war. Throughout the summer, the teenager embarks on a journey to reconnect with the memories of her grandfather, aiming to revive the ties to her familial and cultural heritage. Against the backdrop of ruins, memories, and identity, Bir’em depicts the struggles of a young generation that grapples with the dispossession of a home and a history.
Film Screening
Wednesday, April 17th
Free and open to the public
Co-Sponsored by:
Film Screening
Followed By
Discussion and Q&A with
Camille Clavel
(Filmmaker and Screenwriter)
After studies in French Literature at the Sorbonne University, Camille Clavel goes to New York to study painting at the Arts Student’s League. On his return to Paris, he played in several films as an actor in Jacques Doillon, Gérard Mordillat, and Philippe Faucon films’. In 2004 he directed his first film, Sergio, in New York, a short fiction about an undocumented Mexican worker. The film won the Special Prize of Clermont-Ferrand ISFF, and was broadcast on Arte. Afterward, Camille Clavel directed several documentaries about cultural topics for French television and one feature documentary about the Israel-Palestian conflict, titled: Where to, Israel?
Omar S. Dahi
Omar S. Dahi is a professor of economics at Hampshire College. Dahi has previously served in various roles at Hampshire, as Faculty Trustee, as a representative of the Hampshire AAUP, and as interim vice president for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty. He is the founding director of Security in Context, a research network on peace, conflict, and international affairs. He has published in academic outlets such as the Journal of Development Economics and Applied Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Political Geography, Middle East Report, Forced Migration Review, and Critical Studies on Security. His last book was South-South Trade and Finance in the 21st Century: Rise of the South or a Second Great Divergence (co-authored with Firat Demir). Dahi serves as an associate editor of the Review of Social Economy as well as the e-zine Jadaliyya and has served on the editorial committee of the Middle East Report. He is a founding member of the Beirut School of Critical Security Studies within the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS). Dahi has served as a lead expert on the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of West Asia’s National Agenda for the Future of Syria program. Dahi was born and raised in Syria and currently lives with his wife and two children in Amherst.
Trailer