30.11.23, 20:30, The Dupes (1972)

Tewfik Saleh, Arabic spoken, English subtitles

The Dupes outlines the fate of three Palestinian refugees of different generations seeking safe passage from Iraq to Kuwait in the 1950s. In Kuwait, they hope for work and money to send home to their families. Hidden in the steel tank of a truck, they try to reach the 'Promised Land'. Each of them embodies a different dimension of the Palestinian experience and believes he can build a new life for himself.

Egyptian director Tewfik Saleh made one of the first Arab films on the Palestinian issue with this film adaptation of the 1962 novella Men in the Sun (by murdered Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani). An excruciatingly exciting and eminently modern political film work, The Dupes is a stark, beautifully photographed black-and-white film and an astonishing milestone in Arab cinema.

Restored by the World Cinema Project of The Film Foundation and Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with the National Film Organisation and the family of Tewfik Saleh. Funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
Proceeds from the film will go directly to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

This screening will be introduced by filmmaker Mohanad Alyacoubi. Beforehand, we will show the short film No Exit (2014).