The inaugural moment of these Exiles is devoted to literature. On November 8th, at Teatro do Bairro, British-Libyan writer Hisham Matar and journalist Isabel Lucas will discuss the theme of exile in the author’s work, particularly in My Friends, his latest novel, recently published in Portugal by Relógio D’Água. A novel that follows three Libyan friends in London from the 1980s through to the Arab Spring of 2011, the work was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, and won both the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2025. The event will have free admission, as will P857, an exhibition opening the same day at ZDB. Created by Dahaleez – an artistic research collective founded in 2021 by artists and researchers from Gaza – it is a spatial and conceptual intervention that explores the invisible and what lies on the threshold of the image, through installation, sculpture, video, and marks in space. As part of this exhibition, on November 9th, Teatro do Bairro hosts Gaza – At the Limit of Visibility, a meeting between the collective’s artists and those still in Gaza, through readings, music, screenings and discussions.
Linked to these invisible spaces are the non-places. On November 11th, Teatro do Bairro presents Exile 8125, a dance manifesto in which Adilson A.K.A. Bonny portrays the journey of a man who, having lived his entire life in Portugal, still waits to be recognised as part of it.
An exile within his own body, searching for the most simple and radical right: to exist with dignity. The performance will feature live music by Raúl da Costa (piano), Mais Hreish (flute) and Tayob (MPC – Music Production Center). At the end of the show, guest artist Dino D’Santiago joins Adilson for an open conversation with the audience about inner exile, identity, and the transformative power of art.
On the evening of November 12th, Cinema São Jorge hosts Sobre la Falta de Hogar – or “On the Lack of a Home” – a conversation with Spanish philosopher Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego, in a time marked by radical expropriation, deterritorialisation and displacement, in a world that has become a universe of global exile. Earlier that same day, Samaniego presents Raúl Ruiz’s 1975 film Dialogues of Exiles, composed of staged interviews and conversations with Chileans reflecting on the challenges of living abroad without any clear sense of future. Both events are free to attend.
The Exiles programme also includes a Syrian Night, dedicated to a country where political instability and war have forced millions to say farewell to home. It takes place at Teatro do Bairro on November 14th, featuring a screening of Our Terrible Country, by Syrian documentarian Mohammad Ali Atassi, which follows the perilous journey of Syrian intellectual and dissident Yassin Haj Saleh and rebel photographer Ziad Homsi. Atassi will join the session for a conversation with historian Farouk Mardam-Bey, in an event that also includes an oud recital by Ahmad Alhossari, a Syrian musician based in Portugal.
On 15 November, Cinema Nimas hosts two special screenings as part of Exiles. The first is Ce gamin, là, by Renaud Victor – about French pedagogue Fernand Deligny’s experience working with autistic children in a small village in southern France – followed by a discussion with cinematographer Richard Copans; then comes a journey into the past of Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, through the documentary Bye Bye Tiberias, directed by her daughter Lina Soualem, which follows her mother’s return to her roots, a place she left to pursue her dream of becoming an actress in Europe. The screening will be followed by a Masterclass with Hiam Abbass. On the final day of LEFFEST, November 16th, the conversation continues at Cinema Nimas, with Israeli filmmaker and video artist Avi Mograbi, following the screening of The First 54 Years, in which he seeks to define the term “occupation” through the testimonies of those who implemented it.
All information about the Exiles programme can be found here.