The Palestinian Movement Film Festival & Featured Performance
Saturday 8 November, 5pm
Tickets €10/€8
A Palestinian dance festival that embraces screen dance as its primary form, using the digital stage to transcend geography and connect artists across the globe. In Ireland, the festival partners with Light Moves, Dance Limerick and Catherine Young Dance – a company that has been working closely with Palestinian dancers since 2017.
As part of this programme, Catherine Young Dance and the Palestinian dance company El Funoun Dance Company present a short live performance of SUMUD. SUMUD is a coming together of traditional Irish and Palestinian dance, a visceral act of solidarity, resilience, and cultural resistance.
The festival is an initiative of the Palestinian dance collective Stereo48, which is dedicated to developing a contemporary Palestinian dance scene that encourages artistic collaboration and innovation. The festival takes place simultaneously in November 2025 in Palestine, Norway, Ireland, Australia, Lebanon and Tunisia, creating a shared experience across multiple cities.
SUMUD:
Choreography: Catherine Young Dance & El Funoun Dance Company.
Dancers: Ghaliah Conroy, Kristyn Fontanella, James Greenan, Stephanie Keane, LauraLundy, Odhran McLaughlin, Simone O’Toole, Carmen Palacios, Amir Sabra, Tatiana Santos, and Catherine Young plus members of El Funoun Dance Company including Mohammed Alsafadi, Mohammed Altayeh, Loor Amin, Leena Khattab, and Tala Mansour.
Music: Rosc Catha na Mumhan | arrangement by Jade O Connor. Yarghoul l translated to uilleann pipes by Tim Doyle | rhythm arrangement by Martin Schärer.
Musicians: Martin Scharër (MD), Tim Doyle, Róisín El Cherif (singer), Brian Fleming, Barra O’Flanniagh, Nico Severin, and Deirdre Murphy.
Film: Luca Truffarelli.
Film programme:
TO FORGET THE BOMBS
9:00 | 2024
Artist / Director: Antoine Schirer
Ahmed and Kareem were teaching hip-hop dance to the kids of Gaza when 7 October 2023 changed everything. Very quickly, they realized that nothing would ever be the same. What can you do, when you’re 25 years old and bombs are falling from the sky every day?
CELLS OF ILLEGAL EDUCATION
12:27 | 2016
Director / Choreographer: Farah Saleh
Composer / Sound: Muqata’a
A video dance installation that revisits gestures of civil disobedience carried out during the First Intifada in Occupied Palestine. It reenacts, transforms and deforms gestures exercised by Birzeit University students between 1988 and 1992 while trying to continue their education process at a time when schools and universities were closed by Israeli military rule and students and teachers who refused to abide were labeled “Cells of Illegal Education.”
CLOSER THAN EVER
03:38 | 2022
Director / Artist: Abdallah Damra, Alaa Aliabdallah ‘Regash’
Dance / Production Company: Stereo48 Dance Company & Regash Production
The film explores themes of loneliness and time, with death always lurking at life’s crossroads. Abdallah Damra shares his experience of living in the city of Merano, Italy, where he resided next to a cemetery visited by many who came to lay flowers on the graves of their loved ones. Between the pain of hearing their words and his own deep sense of solitude, he begins to question the impact of this experience on his mental well-being.
FALSE AWAKENING
11:53 | 2020
Director: Amir Sabra
Choreographic Assistance: Hamza Damra
Composer / Sound: Muqata’a
Dance / Production Company: Stereo48 Dance Company
After an exhausting day at work, a Palestinian girl falls asleep and get stuck in a vivid dream. We dive with her into a series of dreams that take us on a journey into her subconscious mind, which might give us an opportunity to know a little more about her reality.
مسارم RITUALS
2025
Artist / Director: Ashtar Muallem
In production.
ارتسكروا ORCHESTRA
2025
Artist / Director: Shatha Yassin
In production.
ماكرلا تحت نم ايحن WE RISE FROM BENEATH THE RUBBLE
2025
Artist / Director: Adam Anwar
In production.
Funded by AFAC Arab Fund For Culture in Partnership with Dance Limerick, Danseurs citoyens sud, Ishbilia Theater, and Dukkana Hardingst. SUMUD is supported by Backstage Theatre & CoisCéim.