Going for a Ride?

synopsis

The video is based on the construction of the art installation Going for a Ride? (23 June 2002) by the Palestinian artist Vera Tamari, documented and produced by filmmaker Nahed Awwad.

“When the Israelis withdrew leaving destruction, we read a comment in ‘Haaretz’ to the effect that ‘we thought we have destroyed all the cars, from where have these cars now on the roads come from?”

The installation is a statement on the aggressive and deliberate crushing of hundreds of privately-owned cars by Israeli tanks in Ramallah and El-Bireh during the military incursions in the two towns in 2002. It focuses on crushed cars because of the powerful meaning cars usually carry: freedom, the open road, travel and movement. On the night of the opening of the installation, the Israeli tanks re-occupied Ramallah imposing curfew and creating once more havoc in the city. The tanks drove into the installation site and pushed the cars deliberately off the “road”. In the film, the cars are brought to life again by searching into the memories of those who rode them.

about the filmmakers

Nahed Awwad is a Palestinian independent filmmaker and a film curator based in Berlin. She has been working in Film and Television since 1997. Awwad was professionally trained in Canada, Qatar, and Belgium. In 2004 she got her film diploma from the European Film College in Denmark and has since released eight films, among them “25 km”, “Going for Ride?”, “5 Minutes from Home”, and “Gaza Calling”; all were meticulously researched. The ethos of Awwad’s filmmaking is to provide intimate access to the characters featured in her films. Audiences feel they know – and understand – the protagonists.