Pordenone Silent Film Festival Unearths Rare Footage of Coexistence in Early 20th Century Palestine
PORDENONE, ITALY – A newly restored and recontextualized film, screened at the Giornate del Cinema Muto silent film festival in Pordenone, Italy, offers a rare and moving glimpse of life in Palestine during the early 20th century, revealing a period of relative coexistence between Christians, Muslims, and Jews. The footage, originally shot as British military propaganda during and after World War I, has been reshaped by filmmaker Zaven to highlight the shared lives and cultural connections of the region’s diverse population.
The revelation and presentation of this material comes at a time of heightened global focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a growing need to understand the region’s complex history. While originally intended to showcase British gains in Palestine – depicting “terrain gained” and “Turks beaten” – Zaven’s work reframes the narrative, focusing instead on everyday life and shared cultural practices. “What I thought was fascinating was seeing the population: the christians in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and the Muslims at the Mosque of Omar, and the Jews at the Wailing Wall,” Zaven explained. “That was the most moving aspect – that coexistence was not a sin. These people had so many things in common. They sang more or less the same songs. They celebrated together.”
The festival itself is actively working against the perception of silent cinema as a static, nostalgic art form. According to festival organizers, “I’m constantly looking for ways to counter the narrative that we are locked in amber and that we are people who always just want to look at the past in a nostalgic way,” says Weissberg, acknowledging Italy’s own struggles with “a phony nostalgia for the ’30s and ’40s.” The Pordenone festival features new discoveries, restorations with live musical accompaniment, and ongoing scholarly discussion, aiming to present silent film as a vibrant and evolving medium.
