Leila and the Wolves (ليلى والذئاب)

Screening in collaboration with Dundee Nablus Twinning Association and to celebrate International Women’s Day.

This screening will be introduced by Viviane Saglier, University of St Andrews.

Leila and the Wolves is a film that reveals a nearly forgotten past of women’s struggle in Palestine and Lebanon attempting to retell these regional narratives from a feminist perspective. As John Akomfrah has written, Leila and the Wolves “weaves a rich tableau of history, folklore, myth and archival material.” 

The female protagonist (Nabila Zeitoni) is a Lebanese student living in London in the 1980s, where she is staging a photography exhibition in which women are the unsung heroines of political conflict. Through time-travelling sequences spanning from the 1900s to the 1980s, she traverses both real and imaginary landscapes of Lebanon and Palestine. 

In an interview from 2020, the filmmaker says: “Nowadays, Leila and the Wolves is travelling the world again, more relevant than ever; my unconscious and the collective unconscious of the women of the Middle East spoke together throughout the extreme conditions of making this film.”

Dundee Nablus Twinning Association promotes friendship and understanding between the people of Dundee and the people of Nablus; they will be collecting funds towards equipping a clinic in Askar Refugee Camp in Nablus at this event.

Leila and the Wolves has been restored by CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée. Selected for Venice Classics 2021.

Cinenova is a volunteer-run organisation preserving and distributing the work of feminist film and video makers.