Monangambé + A Defense + I Signed the Petition + Handbook

Monangambé
Sarah Maldoror, Angola 1969, 16 min.

Bir Savunma 
A Defense
Aylin Kuryel, Turkey/Netherlands 2021, 16 min.

I Signed the Petition
Mahdi Fleifel, UK/Switzerland/Germany 2018, 10 min.

Handbuch
Handbook
Pavel Mozhar, Germany/Belarus, 2021,26 min.

Is signing a petition an efficient way to protest against political oppression? What is the potential outcome and what does a signatory risk? In the context of colonialism, can language be used as a weapon against the oppressor? What does political activism mean in the face of a system armed with brutal, methodical torture, and how can one begin to understand torture’s physical and psychological impact? A selection of short films from a range of times and geographies that reflect on strategies of resistance.

Pavel Mozhar was born in 1987 in Minsk and is based in Berlin. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Economics (University of Bayreuth, 2012). After graduating he had various film industry internships and jobs. In 2015 he started his Master’s in Directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, majoring in documentary forms.

​​Aylin Kuryel is an academic and an independent filmmaker, based in Amsterdam and Istanbul. She is an assistant professor at the Literary and Cultural Analysis department at the University of Amsterdam. Her documentaries include Heads and Tails(2018), The Balcony and Our Dreams(2020), and A Defense(2021).