Film
6 May 2023

Foragers directed by Jumana Manna

Film Screening by Cinema Akil

Part of What the Food

7 PM | Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine with wry humor and a meditative pace.

Starts 7:00 pm

Venue Cinema Akil

Warehouse 68

Register Now

Share

Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of 'Israeli nature protection' laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants.

For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law.
By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the lm raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.