Ghost Hunting

January 20th 2018 at 8:00 p.m. at Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah
January 26th 2018 at 8:00 p.m. at The Yard, Al Serkal Avenue, Dubai 

​Directed by Raed Andoni
Documentary / 2017 / 94 mins / Arabic (English Subtitles) / PG 13

Director Raed Andoni places a newspaper advertisement in Ramallah. He is looking for former inmates of the Moskobiya interrogation centre in Jerusalem. In his ad he asks that the men should also have experience as craftsmen, architects or actors. After a casting process that almost feels like role play, he arranges for a replica of the centre's interrogation rooms and cells to be built to scale inside a hall - under close supervision from the former inmates and based on their memories. In this realistic setting the men subsequently re-enact their interrogations, discuss details about the prison, and express the humiliation they experienced during their detention. Using techniques that are reminiscent of the so-called 'theatre of the oppressed' they work together to dramatise their real-life experiences. Their reconstruction brings long repressed emotions and undealt with trauma to the fore. Working on the film takes its toll on the men - both physically and mentally. The director also appears in front of the camera; not only is he creating a stage for his protagonists, he is also coming to terms with his own fragmented memories of imprisonment in Moskobiya thirty years previously.

About the Director: 
Palestinian filmmaker and producer based in Paris, Raed Andoni has working in independent cinema since 1997. He co-founded DAR FILMS, a production company based in Ramallah, producing and securing a wide international distribution for a number of award-winning documentaries. In 2008, he co-founded LES FILMS DE ZAYNA, a Paris-based production company.
His first feature documentary as a director, Improvisation (2006) has screened in various international festivals and received the 2006 Art and Culture Award at the International Mediterranean Documentary Competition run by CMCA. Fix Me (2010), has premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won several awards in international and Arab film festivals. It was commercially released commercially in France in November 2010. Ghost Hunting (2017) has premiered at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, winning the Best Documentary Award and an audience award.