A World Not Ours is a passionate, bittersweet account of one family’s multi-generational experience living as permanent refugees.

Now a Danish resident, director Mahdi Fleifel grew up in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, established in 1948 as a temporary refuge for exiled Palestinians. Today, the camp houses 70,000 people and is the hometown of generations of Palestinians. The filmmaker’s childhood memories are surprisingly warm and humorous, a testament to the resilience of the community. Yet his yearly visits reveal the increasing desperation of family and friends who remain trapped in psychological as well as political limbo.  

Presented in collaboration with Reel Palestine

About Reel Palestine 

Reel Palestine is an annual film festival showing a selection of alternative Palestinian films in the United Arab Emirates. The not-for-profit and volunteer-based organization was set up by group of friends in Dubai in 2014 and launched its first pop-up festival in January 2015 with the purpose of showing Palestinian culture and tenacity through film, submerging viewers in the beautiful, difficult, emotional, and inspirational moments that occur under occupation.

This film screening is presented in connection with Permanent Temporariness: Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, on view at the NYUAD Art Gallery through June 9, 2018.