Abstraction belongs to us
Short Film, 11 mins, 2026
Funded by Arts Council England in collaboration with Cité Internationale des Arts.
Filmed between London and Paris, Abstraction Belongs to Us follows a network of Palestinian artists navigating questions of European identity and political geography through the prisms of sexuality and gender.
The film approaches abstraction as an emergent mode of self-definition, placing it within the tensions, contradictions, and intersections shaping queer and Palestinian experience in France and the UK in recent years.
Drawing from six interviews with LGBTQIA+ Palestinian artists, the work reconstructs and revoices their testimony through three performers who move through the city as layered narratives intertwine. revealing tensions between voice and body, mapping moments of cultural hybridity, intimacy, and resilience.
Credits
Director & Producer: Gaby Sahhar
Co-Producer: Dusan Kacan
Voice Actors: Ali Cherri, Zainab Magdy, Dana Teresa Allam
Actors: Aya Abu Hawasha, Mahdi Baraghithi, Hiba Salameh
Directors of Photography: Yanqiu Fei, Olivia Morrison
DoP Assistants: Woody Wu, Tom Laxton
Sound: Owen Pratt
Editor: Mateo Villanueva Brandt
Colourist: Philip Morozo
Special Thanks: To the six contributors from the Palestinian network across Paris and London