Non Stop, the users script

Asira ash Shamaliya -  ’Non Stop’ is the central notion to the Users script of Asira ash Samaliya. It is a constant moving back and forth between past, present and future. You cannot forget about the past. The consequences of Nekba, the Catastrophe when the Palestinians lost their land to the establishment of the Israeli State is as urgent and omnipresent as 60 years ago. There are orchards with olive trees of over a thousand years still delivering olive oil, one of the main sources of income of the village. The buildings in this old part of the village show a lot of history on its skin. Paintings on the wall when people have gone to Mecca, old signs and sayings from the Quran and elsewhere on the fence at the school painted signs of Hope and Peace. New buildings are signed with the name of the future inhabitant. We see little hidden shops and mini markets with nice old ladies. Shops of memories. Even an empty shop, yet opened every morning for the last 10 years. The old man sitting in front next to an empty chair to be filled by a possible future companion. We see construction workers, men about to go off harvesting olives, yellow containers in the car, ladder on the roof. We see the tractor with the water tank, helping the people who are dry by the strict rationing of water by the Israelis. There are ’the open wounds’ of the occupation, a house of a martyr bulldozed to pieces, a car bought from Israelis who reported the car as stolen, subsequently smashed by Palestinian authority because it is an illegal car. And then there are the ’tribes’ living in the hood: the dogs and cats surviving on their own, without an owner. The elder men walking up and down the streets. The elder women popping their heads out of the window and start to talk. A car with young men enters the streets. Seeing us, 10 people with camera’s they burst out in pure pleasure. The past, present and the future all exist simultaneously. Nonstop.
Lino Hellings – 50 villages Asira ash Shamaliya