The 1st Kolnoa – Israeli Film Festival with Al-seenima Palestinian Film Day (Warsaw, April 2009)
Organized by Daniel Strehlau, the joint KOLNOA – 1st Israeli Film Festival and Al-Seenima Palestinian Film Day took place in April 2009 in Warsaw. The program featured the best and the newest film productions of Israeli cinematography.
The opening event of the 2009 KOLNOA Festival was the Official Polish Premiere of Waltz with Bashir, which received the KOLNOA Audience Award. A post-screening Q&A was held with the film’s director, Ari Folman. We know that not all Israeli productions contain typical Jewish content; therefore, I presented to the Warsaw audience films that could not be screened at the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival.
Al-Seenima Palestinian Film Day. The program featured documentary and narrative films addressing Palestinian themes.
Al-Seenima hosted filmmakers from Jenin, including Ismail Khatib and Fakhri Hamad, as well as members of the Palestinian-Polish community from Warsaw. Each screening was followed by a discussion and Q&A session moderated by Kostek Gebert and Maget M. Sahly.
In addition to the film program, the Palestinian guests were invited to explore Warsaw and learn about the city’s history. This included workshops at the Jewish Historical Institute focusing on the tragedy of Warsaw’s Jews and the history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Institute also presented a photo exhibition documenting the destruction of the cinema in Jenin and the challenges faced by Palestinians in parts of the West Bank, such as lack of access to a regular water supply.
Through this unique cultural encounter, the festival offered all participants an opportunity to engage with shared aspirations for peace, understanding, and cooperation, values seen by both Israelis and Palestinians as essential to building a future of hope and coexistence.
The festival formally supported the Cinema Jenin Foundation (Daniel Strehlau is one of the cosigning members of Cinema Jenin e.V.), whose mission was to rebuild the former cinema in Jenin as a Center for Peace (CINEMA JENIN was opened in the summer of 2011 and operated as a movie theater for 5 years before it was demolished in December 2016 and replaced by a shopping mall).