Screening:
Letter to a Refusing Pilot (2013)

SALT Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema
February 8, 15.30 (looped)

Letter to a Refusing Pilot (2013)
Akram Zaatari
34 minutes
Arabic; English and Turkish subtitles

Taking a cue from Albert Camus’ epistolary essay “Letters to a German Friend,” in Letter to a Refusing Pilot celebrated Lebanese artist-filmmaker Zaatari conducts both an investigation and a stirring tribute to an act of resistance (or forbearance) that marked his childhood memories: the refusal of an Israeli pilot to bomb a boys’ high school on June 6, 1982 in South Lebanon. Oscillating between documentary, essay and fiction, this elegant and multi-layered video combines personal and archival documents as it seeks to recuperate historical truth from the annals of personal reminiscence, laced with both enchantment and fear. Framed like a coming-of-age filled with wonderment and insuperable curiosity, Letter to a Refusing Pilot humanizes a personal gesture in face of a greater conflict.

Letter to a Refusing Pilot was first presented at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and will be running in paralel to Akram Zaatari’s exhibition at SALT Beyoğlu.


The exhibition and screening are organized with the support of funds from Zaatari’s receipt of the Yanghun Prize, Korea, 2011.