'By documenting our daily lives, our rituals, we are reclaiming the narrative and showing our strength and resilience as a society, that we are more than just victims,' says Noor Abed. Photo: The Star/Raja Faisal Hishan
When you watch Palestinian artist-filmmaker Noor Abed’s works, there’s a sense of weightiness to it – in the purposeful movements of the people, the captivating landscapes, and the enigmatic ambient sounds.
Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur recently screened Noor Abed's trilogy – Penelope (2014), our songs were ready for all wars to come (2021), and A Night We Held Between (2024) – followed by a discussion with writer/director Jo Kukathas on her work’s ties to Palestine’s mythology, landscape, and history.
The conversation was organised to coincide with the gallery’s screening of A Night We Held Between, which is running through Nov 22 at Ilham Gallery's Level 3 space.
Having grown up in Bir Nabala, a small town just outside of Jerusalem, Noor has always been very aware of the ways our bodies must adapt to its surroundings and circumstances.
“The occupation is always fragmenting land, so our bodies are learning all the time how to move and how to resist, how to try to re-enter, how to smuggle, and how to get used to the new road, to the new city,” said Noor in an interview at Ilham Gallery.
Her interest in the power and significance of movement led to her involvement in performance art.
“I always thought my body is the only thing I have, especially living in Palestine with the constant presence of aggression and dispossession. I figured that it's lighter to just make art with the body,” said Noor.
However, she was inspired to explore filmmaking after performing at the 2011 Annual Performance Festival in Hamar, Norway.
“It was a very simple performance – I put a bicycle in a lake and there’s this illusion where I appear to be on top of the water, cycling endlessly on a stationary bicycle going nowhere. Afterwards, they sent me photos of the performance, and to me, it was nicer than the performance itself. It was the first time I started to think about how the camera frames the body. So I decided to do a series of performances recorded on video,” she shared.
Noor Abed's 'A Night We Held Between' (2024) film centres around 'Song For The Fighters,' which she found at the sonic archive of the Popular Art Center in Ramallah. Photo: Ilham Gallery
Then in 2014, she produced Penelope, a silent short film inspired by Homer’s classic Greek epic poem Odyssey.
“It was the first time I wasn’t in front of the camera. Instead, I put my mother in front, and after seeing the finished product, the joy I had, it was insane. So I started to bring in more people, tell more stories.”
Reclaiming the narrative
A Night We Held Between, which was produced with the support of the Han Nefkens Foundation-Fundacio Antoni Tapies Video Art Production Grant 2022, centres around the Palestinian folk song “Song for The Fighters,” which Noor discovered at the sonic archive of the Popular Art Center in Ramallah, the central West Bank.
In the 30-minute film, Noor weaves the song together with a labyrinth of unsettling sounds and ancient sites, conjuring history as a permanent present tense, a collective and imaginative act. Viewers are transported to Palestine’s rugged landscape, filled with caves, carved holes, underground passages, and wild valleys that become the film’s main characters.
The film’s scenes intertwine rituals and narratives of community and resistance into everyday representations of social life in Palestine, emphasising the role of collective rhythmic movement and the potential impact that shared feelings can evoke in creating and sustaining a community.
Adding to the visceral feel of the film is the fact that Noor filmed it on 16mm analogue film, which she did for Penelope and our songs were ready for all wars to come as well.
“There is something very real and material about analogue that conceptually relates to my thinking of the land in Palestine. I didn’t want to just document it, I wanted to be able to touch and hold the film," said Noor.
A video still from 'A Night We Held Between' (2024), which is currently showing at Ilham Gallery until Nov 22. Photo: Ilham Gallery.
“There are also a lot of restrictions when it comes to filming in analogue. I only have two minutes and a half to record, so it’s not like filming 10 hours on digital. There is something precious about it, so I have to take great care, be very present, very caring about what I film. The film is also sensitive to light, so I have to be protective of it, the same way as I should be for the people and the land and whatever I'm filming. So, I like this connection."
Noor sees her films as the opportunity to shed light on other aspects of Palestinian identity and community, beyond what’s commonly shown to the world.
More than just victims
Are her film-art works, now touring galleries worldwide, viewed as a form of resistance?“I believe every act we do should be part of resistance, to be honest, and because I am an artist, my medium is also part of that,” said Noor.
“By documenting our daily lives, our rituals, we are reclaiming the narrative and showing our strength and resilience as a society, that we are more than just victims,” she added.
She points out that many archival visuals of Palestine were produced through a Western or Orientalist lens, so the nostalgic quality of her films are her way of countering that.
“Image-making is a powerful tool in promoting the truth of something. So using the same medium that looks nostalgic and historical, I wanted to create another reality. I'm hoping that these images can intrude on the history that has been mainstreamed, because the only images we have are from Western and Orientalists.”
Noor’s choice in using the word “intrude” is deliberate: “I use ‘intrude’ because it's an action, a demand. ‘Representation’ is soft, and I don't want to be soft. I want to work beyond representation. I want to be more active, more sharp and incisive in my work.”
She even co-founded the School of Intrusions in 2019 with her friend Lara Hadid – the collective "intruded" on private and public spaces in Ramallah, be it a street, monument, graveyard, or cultural institution.
“The main concept was to urge people to see the city as a common space, and to reclaim these spaces,” said Noor.
A deeper understanding
For Ilham Gallery director Rahel Joseph, screening Noor’s films in Kuala Lumpur is timely.
“As an artist, Noor is such a powerful storyteller – I love the way she uses folk stories, rituals, and songs and ancient dances from Palestine, to create these very moving, almost haunting films,” said Joseph.
“Her films have a strong sense of the Palestinian landscape and really draws you in – you understand that strong connection that Palestinian people have with the land. You also get a sense of the resilience of a people navigating the brutality of the occupation. As she said in the conversation with Jo Kukathas, ‘We come from the land, and we are the land. Just being on the land is a form of resistance,’” she added.
Joseph highlights the power of the arts as an effective way to tell the story of a people and a place: “By showing the work of Palestinian artists like Noor, we can ensure that these stories never die. We hope that visitors to the film screening will have a deeper understanding of the incredibly rich culture of Palestine and Palestinians.”
A Night We Held Between is showing at Level 3, Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur until Nov 22. Free admission.
