Fertile Memory

"Fertile Memory" was the first film to be made by a Palestinian director inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. Neither a documentary nor a feature film, this film recounts the lives of two very different Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh a West Bank novelist. Michel Khleifi observes both women closely in their everyday life and brings their contrasting personalities to the fore. Their differing opinions and differing lives play an important role in underlining their shared status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet despite these contrasts, both mother and intellectual share the same struggle for freedom and dignity.