Over the past five years, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme investigated songs and poems by Palestinians held prisoner in Israeli jails from 1948 to the present, reflecting on poetry as an act of resistance in confinement. Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom is the opening iteration of this research and their first performative project.

It is a visual poem of expanded cinema, drawn from firsthand recordings, interviews, and texts that reflect on the experience of the small prisons within the broader prison of Occupation. For Abbas and Abou-Rahme, who began their careers in Palestine’s music and video scene, sound is a crucial medium capable of transcending enclosed spaces. In their new piece, the power of poetry and song overflows the borders of repressive structures, and visuals break free from screens to create an immersive experience.

In La Balsamine, a former military barracks’ auditorium, this cinematic experience is accompanied for the first three days by a performance developed in collaboration with Palestinian musician Julmud. Prisoners of Love references the title of Jean Genet’s writings on Palestine, highlighting how poetry mobilises hope to collectively imagine alternative futures, so that one day prison walls may crumble to dust.

Coproduction Kunstenfestivaldesarts, NW Open House for Contemporary Art and Film, Festival d’Automne à Paris