Interrupted Futures: Artists in the Shadow of Suspended States
A collaboration between Onassis AiR and the Athens Palestine Film Festival
Time & Date
As part of the Athens Palestine Film Festival’s annual edition, Onassis AiR hosts a film screening with works by two female directors and Onassis AiR Fellows in the context of the festival’s satellite program.
Photo: Christiane Schmidt
Still from "Speak Image, Speak" an essay film in development by Pary El Qalqili
The screening under the title “Interrupted Futures: Artists in the Shadow of Suspended States” gathers the work of the Onassis AiR Fellows Pary El-Qalqili, and Sophie Ataya, whose practices confront the dissonance between hope and arrest, visibility and erasure, voice and censorship.
In the decades since the Oslo Accords, many whose lives were meant to be transformed instead find themselves navigating a landscape of unfinished promises, silenced histories, and deferred autonomy. The three artists expose through film what has been withheld: the everyday landscapes shaped by occupation, moral constraint, and stalled progress; the internal worlds of memory and intergenerational longing; the hidden and forbidden stories of identity and belonging. Their art refuses to be contained by official silence, by aesthetic norms, or by narratives that demand either compliance or erasure.
Sophie Ataya
ROOTS | جذور
4 min
Caught between two worlds, “ROOTS” is a contemplative exploration of belonging and identity. Inspired by a poem, the film traces a personal journey to uncover one’s origins and redefine the self beyond society’s labels and expectations. Through lyrical imagery and introspective narration, “ROOTS” invites us to reflect on what it truly means to find where—and who—we are.
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Still from "Roots" by Sophie Ataya
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Still from "Roots" by Sophie Ataya
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Still from "Roots" by Sophie Ataya
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Still from "Roots" by Sophie Ataya
Pary El-Qalqili
SCHILDKRÖTENWUT (The Turtle’s Rage)
2012, Documentary, HD, 70 min, German / Arabic with English subtitles
When I was 12 years old, my father left us to return to Palestine. His dream to build a house and pursue the fight for freedom in Palestine failed. He was expelled by the Israelis. Suddenly, he was back in Berlin, ringing at our front door. My mother looked at him, did not say a word, and let him in. Now he spends his days sitting in the basement of our small, terraced house. Withdrawn into his turtle shell. My mother lives upstairs. They don’t fight anymore. They try not to cross each other’s paths. Not a sound is to be heard. Only the creaking steps of my mother on the stairs. The humming of the television. And my nagging questions to my father. “The Turtle’s Rage” tells the story of a mysterious man whose life has been molded by flight, expulsion, life in exile, and the failed return to Palestine. A torn biography. The film is composed of a daughter’s search for answers from her father. Answers he cannot give. A road movie crossing Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan. Father and daughter: Fighting at the airport. Singing with the cab drivers. Lonely nights in hotels. Negotiations at abandoned gas stations. Drinking beer in the Naqab Desert. A story traversed by many nuances, which makes it nearly impossible to think in categories like good and bad, victim and offender, or black and white.
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Still from "The Turtle’s Rage" by Pary El-Qalqili
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Still from "The Turtle’s Rage" by Pary El-Qalqili
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Still from "The Turtle’s Rage" by Pary El-Qalqili
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Still from "The Turtle’s Rage" by Pary El-Qalqili
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Still from "The Turtle’s Rage" by Pary El-Qalqili
Pary El-Qalqili is a writer and director based in Berlin. In her cinematic work, she explores nonlinear narratives that challenge hegemonic storytelling. Looking at life that has been disrupted, uprooted, colonized, and marginalized, she understands fragmentary narrative forms that embrace ruptures, gaps, and irritation as key to decolonizing not only our gaze, but also our minds. Her feature, “The Turtle’s Rage,” has been awarded at international film festivals and had a German cinema release. Her last short film, “neighbors,” co-directed with Christiane Schmidt, was nominated for the German Critics Award 2019. She is currently teaching at various institutions, such as Berlin University of Arts, Johann Gutenberg University, Mainz, Barenboim-Said Academy, Berlin, and the self-organized film school filmArche, also in Berlin.
Pary El-Qalqili was a participant of the Onassis AiR Extended Research Residencies program for 2024–25.
Photo: Christiane Schmidt
Pary El-Qalqili
Sophie Ataya is a German-Palestinian writer, director, and film curator based in Berlin. She holds a degree in Middle Eastern Studies (Free University Berlin and Birzeit University, 2019) and is an alumna of the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris (2023–24), a prestigious program focused on international (co)production, distribution, and sales at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, La Fémis in Paris, and NFTS in London. As part of the Atelier program, she produced the short film “Let’s Call It Love,” which premiered at the Max Ophüls Film Festival.
Before shifting to filmmaking, Sophie worked in cultural production with international organizations in Lebanon and Palestine. From 2020 το 2022, she participated in a Documentary Directing program at the self-organized film school filmArche in Berlin. In her cinematic work, she focuses on (post)migration identities, as well as themes of identity and belonging from a post-migration perspective. Through storytelling, she seeks to amplify underrepresented narratives, using film as a tool for empowerment and anti-colonial practice.
In her curatorial practice, she focuses on contemporary Arab cinema, curating short film programs for various screenings in Berlin and Paris. Through these events, she highlights the power of film to foster community and collective experience.
She has directed and produced a short essay film and is currently developing the script for her first fiction short film. “WHO WE ARE” (working title) is her debut feature documentary.
Sophie Ataya is a participant of the Onassis AiR Extended Research Residencies program for 2025–26.
Photo: Diana Hegazy
Sophie Ataya
Screening, Workshop
Onassis AiR | Athens Palestine Film Festival
Onassis AiR
