Aida Returns
Image courtesy of Forward Film Production

Aida Returns

classified 18 (CTBA) S

part of Bristol Palestine Film Festival 2024

Film

Sat 7 Dec 12:30

Director
Carol Mansour
Cast
Rafik Ali Ahmad, Nabila Zeitouni
Details
78 mins, & Subtitled, 2023, Lebanon
Primary language
Arabic

A poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, and often absurd documentary of a multiple journey: the journey of loss as the director's mother, Aida, struggled with losing herself to Alzheimer's disease while finding solace in her repeated 'returns' to the Yafa and Palestine of her youth; the journey of the loss of a parent; and the ultimate return journey back to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest and be herself once more.

Close to four years after Aida's passing away, the director's friend and colleague Tanya who lives in Ramallah came to visit Beirut. When she heard about Aida's wishes and yearning for Yafa, Tanya suggested that she herself carries the ashes back. The film
accompanies director Carol Mansour as she engineers a way to return her mother to Yafa in search of eternal rest and peace for her. A return that is aided by an unlikely set of friends and strangers all coming together to facilitate what should have been a simple journey.

This journey is at the same time very private and personal, while resonating with hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer's sufferers and their families as well as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees awaiting their return home.


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