Former Palestinian prisoners work hard to conquer ghosts of their torture
Palestinian filmmaker Raed Andoni talks about his and other former political prisoners’ hunt for the ghosts that remind them of Israeli torture.
When he was only 18, Raed Andoni was arrested near his Beit Sahour home, south of Bethlehem. Twenty-eight years later, Andoni was in Germany at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) being celebrated for producing a documentary about what happened during those days to him and to other Palestinian prisoners.
“Istiad Ashbah” ("Ghost Hunting") is a documentary about attempts by Palestinian prisoners to conquer their ghosts and rebuild their lives.
A co-production between Palestine, France, Switzerland and Qatar, “Ghost Hunting” premiered at the 67th Berlinale in February, where the film won on Feb. 18 the main documentary prize and one of three audience awards.
Andoni was arrested in 1985. Since then, many Palestinians have been arrested and repressed, especially after the 1987 Palestinian protests that introduced to the world a new term, “intifada.” Andoni spent a year in various Israeli jails, but the trauma stayed with him for years.
