Panel: Jailbird / طير القفص

With Monika Borgmann, Yazan Rabee and Joud Hassan (tbc). Moderated by Rasha Abbas.

Prison literature and prisoner’s cinema as artistic genres have long been instrumental in shaping our political imaginaries. They present us with the possibility of liberation but also an ethical conundrum. With the post-apocalyptic visuals and stories of liberated prisoners that have recently emerged from both Palestine and Syria, we are left overwhelmed with emotions of extreme joy and intense grief alike. This panel will question how narratives from and about imprisonment can be processed, both artistically and politically, using cinema, activism, and poetry as entry points. (AF)