Being Urban

Abstract

Kamal Aljafari’s film Port of Memory opens with a long tracking shot of a grand, decaying house at twilight. The camera lingers on the bones of a structure that bears traces of other times and previous inhabitation. It is surprising that someone born and raised in Ramle should think to tell the story of Jaffa instead of his originary city. Port of Memory is a meditation on the state of Palestinians within Israel. Aljafari employs repetition, juxtaposition, and humour as structuring principles, instead of linear narrative driven by nostalgia. He departs from dominant spectacular filmic representations by focusing on the materiality of the city and the minutiae, sounds and gestures of everyday life: the city’s infrastructure. The gaping maw of settler-colonial expansionism is the lurking menace to the inhabitants and the buildings that offer them both a physical extension and cover.