FORAGERS
By Jumana Manna
About the Film
Foragers chronicles the long-running disputes over the practice of foraging for edible wild plants native to Palestine/Israel. Shot in the Golan Heights, Galilee and Jerusalem, the film employs a blend of fiction and documentary to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs, and on the Palestinians who keep them. The laws prohibit the gleaning of the artichoke-like ‘akkoub, and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and criminal trials for hundreds of mostly elderly Palestinians caught picking these plants. While the Palestinian foragers dismiss these laws as a front for legislation that further impoverishes and alienates them from their land, Israeli state representatives insist it is their duty to institute environmental protections.
With wry humour, the film depicts the never-ending cycle of infringements and arrests. The narrator makes a tongue-in-cheek comparison between a forager who decides to sell off leftover plants from his haul before they spoil, and a “dealer” who supplies weapons or hash. An unintentional slip creates something of an in-joke: a defendant named Wardeh is erroneously called “Varda” by her interrogator before she makes her case for gleaning as necessary for livelihood, a practice passed down in Arab families for generations. Between the field and the kitchen, the patrol and the courtroom, director Jumana Manna captures the inherited knowledge and cherishing of this tradition, as well as resilience against imposed curbs. In its attempt to reframe the terms of engagement, the film raises questions about ownership, namely, who determines what is made extinct and what lives on.
Foragers had its world premiere at Visions du Réel (2022), and has been screened in numerous film festivals around the world, including the Sharjah Film Platform, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, and Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX).
Explore Other Festival Sections
Opening Film
Magellan is an intimate portrait of the 16th century Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, starring Gael García Bernal in the titular role.
Art History, Co-authored
Art History, Co-authored presents films that explore seminal moments in art and film history.
Artist Films
Presenting films made by artists, this year includes an emphasis on early documentaries by Southeast Asian practitioners and a full-length movie independently made during the Marcos regime in the Philippines. National Gallery Singapore commissioned the digital restoration of two artists’ films on 16mm, Virgilio “Pandy” Aviado’s 1978 Footages and Briccio Santos’ Damortis, which are world premiering at Painting with Light.
Exhibition Readings
Exhibition Readings presents film programmes conceived in response to the art in the Gallery’s ongoing exhibitions.
Southeast Asian Shorts
Southeast Asian Shorts presents short films on the stories of Southeast Asia. This year’s programme is co-curated by independent programmer Viknesh Kobinathan, and festival curator Pauline Soh.
Movement Pieces
Movement Pieces celebrates the visual poetry found in moving image art. It features short films that convey meaning through non-verbal modes of communication, like gesture and musicality, in lieu of dialogue.
Closing
We Are Toast is an expanded cinema performance by Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen that utilises multiple 16mm film projectors to create a live film.