Abstraction Belongs to Us

Short Film, 11 mins, 2026

 

Funded by Arts Council England in collaboration with Cité Internationale des Arts

Filmed between London and Paris, Abstraction Belongs to Us follows a network of Palestinian artists

navigating questions of European identity and political geography through the prisms of sexuality and

gender.

The film approaches abstraction as an emergent mode of self-definition, placing it within the tensions,

contradictions, and intersections shaping queer and Palestinian experience in France and the UK in

recent years.

Drawing from six interviews with LGBTQIA+ Palestinian artists, the work reconstructs and revoices

their testimony through three performers who move through the city as layered narratives intertwine.

revealing tensions between voice and body, mapping moments of cultural hybridity, intimacy, and

resilience.

 

Director & Producer

• Gaby Sahhar

Co-Producer

• Dusan Kacan

Voice Actors

• Ali Cherri

• Zainab Magdy

• Dana Teresa Allam

Actors

• Aya Abu Hawasha

• Mahdi Baraghithi

• Hiba Salameh

Directors of Photography

• Yanqiu Fei

• Olivia Morrison

DOP Assistants

• Woody Wu

• Tom Laxton

Sound

• Owen Pratt

Editor

• Mateo Villanueva Brandt

Colourist

• Philip Morozo

Special Thanks

• To the six contributors from the Palestinian network across Paris and London