Return to Haifa

A Palestinian couple travels back to Haifa after the 1967 war to find the child they were forced to leave behind during the 1948 war. They find him as an adult, adopted by an Israeli couple, and now a soldier.

Kassem Hawal's adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani's novella Return to Haifa is a rare cinematic gem. The film is an allegorical tale about Safia and Saeed, who are expelled from Haifa in April 1948 and forced to leave behind their son, Khaldoun. Twenty years later, they return to find their son, who has been adopted by Jewish immigrants, arriving the year they had to flee.

This film goes straight to the core of impossible questions: Who is the real mother? And who is the real father? What is a homeland, and whose land is it? Hawal's film is a significant contribution to Palestinian film history and is just as relevant today as it was over 40 years ago.

Red.

Director

Kassem Hawal (b. 1940) is an award-winning Iraqi director known for his films about the political situation and wars in the Middle East. He studied direction and acting for theater at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. Throughout his career, he has made 28 documentaries and five feature films and is based in the Netherlands.

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