Radical Closure, Program 3: At the Border

Border situations have inspired writers, artists and filmmakers, particularly within the context of divisions and border control within the Middle East. Who draws the borders? What are the effects of imposing them, of imposing checkpoints? This program looks at border situations. In the works presented here, we take a close look at the lines of demarcation, observing what happens on borders in divided Lefkosia (Nicosia), the occupied territories in Palestine, and at the excavation of the site of a former border in Lebanon which no longer exists.

For a further examination of work which evokes the theme of this program, it is worth seeking out Tawfiq Saleh’s feature The Dupes (1972), about Palestinian refugees in Iraq who die while attempting to cross the border into Kuwait, traveling inside a metal water tank through the desert.