"The Presence of Absence in the Ruins of Kafr Bir'im"

"The Presence of Absence in the Ruins of Kafr Bir'im" presents a seldom-heard Palestinian perspective. Shot on location in the ruins and cemetery of Kafr Bir'im, a Palestinian village located in Northern Galilee, the film introduces the viewer to Mr. Ibrahim Essa, an elderly poet who is a survivor of the mass dispossession and expulsion the native population of Palestine experienced in 1948 at the hands of the Zionists. Mr. Essa's family has lived in Kafr Bir'im for the past 700 years. Through his narrative and poetry, Ibrahim Essa recounts his experiences as a youth in the village, the hardships of a life in exile and the intense emotional, physical and historical connections to the land that he shares with the 7.5 million Palestinians who are also living in forced exile from their homes and land. Mr. Essa employs an ancient oral tradition of poetry that, in style, is similar to what is now referred to as "Spoken Word Poetry." This improvisational oral tradition has existed for centuries in Northern Palestine and continues to be used by farmers and villagers to express the community's intimate relationship to the land; a yearning for past times and a better future; and their cultural, psychological and physical attachment to the ancient and modern ruins that exist throughout that region.

In his introduction to the events that resulted in the complete destruction of the village, John Halaka explains that the village of Kafr Bir'im was depopulated of its Palestinian inhabitants by the military forces of the newly imposed Zionist state of 'Israel' in early November 1948. All of the 1050 inhabitants of Kafr Bir'im were driven from their land, and have not been allowed to return to the homes and fields that they and their ancestors had inhabited and cultivated for centuries.

The film commemorates the 60th year of the depopulation by force of Kafr Bir'im and memorializes the mass expulsion and dispossession that befell Palestine that year. The Zionist campaign to dispossess Palestine of its indigenous inhabitants started in December 1947. By December 1948, it had resulted in the destruction of Palestinian civil and political society, the eradication of 531 villages, and the expulsion of more than three quarters of a million Palestinian civilians. Palestinians refer to this great catastrophe as the "Nakba."

About the Filmaker: John Halaka considers himself an activist artist whose creative work serves as a vehicle for meditation on personal, cultural and political concerns. He creates metaphorical images that raise questions, for himself as well as for the viewer, about some of the pressing issues of our time. The primary focus of his work over the past two decades can be summarized as an ongoing reflection on the frailty and resilience of the human condition and the persistent search for self-realization in the face of personal and cultural self-delusion. His experiences as an artist of Palestinian descent shape his pictorial investigations of cycles of repression and displacement as well as the personal and political relationship between desire, denial and instability. His recent work investigates issues of identity construction from personal, familial and political perspectives.

John Halaka is of Palestinian descent and was born in El Mansoura, Egypt, in 1957.  He is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of San Diego, where he has taught since 1991. He received his MFA in the Visual Arts from the University of Houston in 1983. In 1979, Halaka received his B.A. in Fine Arts from the City University of New York Baccalaureate Program, with Brooklyn College as home school.  John Halaka has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions both locally and nationally. His work was included in the exhibit Made In Palestine, organized by the Station Museum, in Houston Texas, as well as, IN-VISIBLE, the inaugural exhibition at the Arab American National Museum in Detroit, Michigan. Halaka's art can be viewed on his web site.