Exile touches the deepest part of the human being: identity, being-in-the-world, and the relationship with the Other. It constitutes a form of uprooting, a rupture, a departure from oneself, but also, and above all, an act of survival. It is not merely a geographical condition, nor simply the consequence of separation from one’s homeland. It is also a mental state – an exile from oneself to oneself. In a world marked by genocides, wars, mass crimes and hateful violence, it is the duty of LEFFEST to adopt a political and critical gaze. Thus, we have programmed this cycle of 21 films, coming from all corners of the world, to reflect on this experience, at once intimate and universal.
The cycle will open at Cinema Medeia Nimas on November 7th, with the screening of Nostalghia (1983), by the master Andrei Tarkovsky, about a Russian poet in search of his cultural past in Italy — a reflection of Tarkovsky’s own experience, having left the Soviet Union in 1979 due to conflicts with the authorities who sought to control his films.
Khartoum (2025) is the most recent production in the programme, in its national premiere, a documentary created by several hands. Its path of creation is unique and goes back to 2022, when four Sudanese filmmakers and a British director and screenwriter began filming the lives of five residents of Khartoum, Sudan. Forced to flee the country following the conflict between the army and the militias that displaced millions, they reinvented the project by adding animation and visual effects. The film will be screened at the Pequeno Auditório of Culturgest on November 9th.
From the most recent to the oldest: the programme includes two short films by Charlie Chaplin, The Immigrant (1917) and The Pilgrim (1923), screened together, first at the Recreios da Amadora on November 9th, and later at the Teatro do Bairro on November 13th, with live music by Rodrigo Amado, Hernâni Faustino and Rodrigo Pinheiro. The two shorts will be complemented by Chaplin: Spirit of the Tramp (2025), a documentary by Carmen Chaplin about her grandfather’s Romani heritage, which so deeply inspired the character of Charlot, one of the most emblematic representations of exile in cinema. The film will be shown on November 16th at Cinema São Jorge; the director will attend the session for a discussion following the screening.
News from Home (1975), on November 10th; Persepolis (2007), on November 12th; and I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave (2006), on November 14th, offer autobiographical explorations of the experience of exile through cinema. In the first, Chantal Akerman reads letters sent by her mother in Belgium during the period she lived in New York. In the second, Marjane Satrapi narrates her childhood in Iran and what changed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which forced her to leave the country. In the latter, Hala Al-Abdallah, exiled for twenty-five years, reflects on loss and resilience in a personal investigation of her homeland, Syria.
The programme also features classics such as The Miracle Worker (1962) by Arthur Penn and Lilith (1964) by Robert Rossen, both on November 11th; Teza (2008) by Haile Gerima, on November 16th, followed by a talk with filmmaker Billy Woodberry; and Soleil Ô (1970) by Med Hondo.
As part of the “Syrian Night”, on November 14th, Our Terrible Country (Baladna alraheeb) by Mohammad Ali Atassi and Ziad Homsi will be screened, following the perilous journey of Syrian intellectual and dissident Yassin Haj Saleh and rebel photographer Ziad Homsi through the liberated area of Douma, Syria, where they first meet, all the way to Raqqa.
All information about the Exiles programme can be found here.