Exile and displacement often mean leaving entire ways of life behind, with the past rewritten and losses haunting generations. In this painful separation, the drive to remember and reimagine becomes more urgent. On Wednesday, two award-winning films — Lyd and Bye Bye Tiberias — explore these themes, reflecting on the futures lost for those forced to leave conflict-ridden Palestine.
These films do not merely depict the ongoing conflict in the Levant, nor do they attempt to untangle the complex politics of borders and identity. Instead, they focus on personal stories — on the emotional landscape of displacement, memory and belonging. For those unfamiliar with the decades-long conflict, these screenings offer an invitation to understand exile not as a distant, abstract concept, but as a deeply human experience that transcends geography.
Swati Dandekar, a city-based filmmaker and the curator of the event, notes that the selection of these films comes at a time when conversations around the Palestinian experience remain largely unspoken in mainstream India. As Swati puts it, “We’ve been keen to screen something on Palestine because there has been an official silence around the issue. It’s important for us to talk about these things.”
Organised in collaboration between the Bangalore International Centre and Vikalp Bengaluru, Lyd and Bye Bye Tiberias approach the theme of displacement differently — one speculative and historical, the other personal and intergenerational. Yet, both films pose the same question: what does it mean to be exiled, and how does one live with it?
In Lyd, the city itself becomes the narrator. Filmmakers Sarah Ema Friedland and Rami Younis employ a distinctive narrative style, blending archival footage with speculative fiction to reimagine Lyd as it could have been — a city free from occupation.
“It is a speculative documentary, which is a relatively new form of filmmaking that envisions alternative futures, often to reflect the desires or hopes of people whose reality may seem grim or hopeless,” shares Swati. For many Palestinians, whose connection to their homeland is intertwined with memories of loss, this approach allows for the imagining of a different trajectory, one where history took another course. giving voice to long-silenced possibilities.
Bye Bye Tiberias is a personal documentary tracing the journey of actor Hiam Abbass as she returns to her Palestinian homeland. Directed by her daughter, Lina Soualem, the film explores not just physical exile but the emotional complexity of leaving and returning. Abbass left Palestine voluntarily yet her departure carried the weight of a deeper exile — a separation from her roots, her family and her past.
“While Lyd uses a speculative lens, Bye Bye Tiberias offers an intimate, personal narrative about displacement and return,” notes Swati. Spanning four generations of Palestinian women, the film offers not just a portrait of one family’s struggle with identity but a broader reflection on how the past reverberates through the present.
For Swati, the power of these films lies not just in their storytelling, but in their ability to spark conversation. After the screenings, the audience will get a chance to engage in discussions led by Swati Dandekar and Marcy Newman, an American Jewish educator and activist with a deep connection to the Palestinian cause.