hold on to her (2024)

  • Human Rights, Hybrid, Investigation, migration

DESCRIPTION

Mawda Shawri, two years old in 2018, sister of Hama, daughter of Phrast and Shamden, was shot dead by a Belgian police officer during a migration border control. In 2023, over 40 people, both undocumented and documented resident activists, assembled before the camera at La Voix des Sans Papiers in Brussels to stage a collective hearing of documents from and reactions to Mawda’s case.

In this hearing, the speakers produce the counter- evidence of a deadly Channel crossing, and they practice justice as a sensuous social space for collective mourning and healing.

Press, Interviews & Reviews

Berlinale Forum Expanded title ‘hold on to her’ acquired for sales, sells to German-speaking territories, Screen, 19.03.2024

Interview: Delightful Docs, Podcast, Feb 21 2024

Interview: Interview Galatta Plus TV

Interview with Robin Vanbesien, Limassol Today, 24.7.2024

DIRECTED BY
Robin Vanbesien, Belgium, 2024, 80´
Production
Visualantics (Steven Dhoedt) & timely (Robin Vanbesien)
Distribution
Arsenal - German speaking countries
Festivals
Berlin IFF - Forum Expanded, Lemesos IDFF (Cyprus), St. Moritz Art FF, Gent IFF - national premiere, ExGround Wiesbaden
TERRITORIES
World except of Belgium
DIRECTOR BIO

A visual artist, PhD candidate and filmmaker, Robin Vanbesien (1979) explores modes of embodied knowledge and collective imagination engaged in social and political struggles. He collaborates with situated emancipatory grassroots movements, exploring cinema as a space for social gathering and political engagement. In 2020, Vanbesien co-founded The Post Film Collective, which explores cinema as a form of speculative rehearsal and communal assembly. ‘Under These Words (Solidarity Athens 2016)’ (2017) and ‘the wasp and the weather’ (2019) premiered at transmediale and Cinéma du Réel. His first feature ‘hold on to her’ had its world premiere at Berlinale Forum Expanded (2024).

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