14/05/2026
Saturday 9/5 - Piff 3rd Edition Limassol
An evening of short films, collective reflection, and discussion around trauma, memory, silence, and the psychological realities carried within Palestinian life under ongoing violence and displacement.
The programme brought together screenings of Upshot by Maha Haj and Gaza Bride 17 by Waseem Khair, two films that approach trauma not through spectacle or graphic violence, but through atmosphere, absence, fragmentation, silence, suspended time, and the emotional weight carried within everyday life.
The screenings were followed by a discussion with Dr. Loucia Demetriou and filmmaker Keti Papadema, who approached the films through the intersecting lenses of psychology and cinematic language.
Drawing from research around transgenerational trauma and Continuous Traumatic Stress, Loucia Demetriou reflected on how trauma persists not as a past event, but as an ongoing condition carried across generations, bodies, homes, and memory. Through the figures of silence, isolation, grief, and endurance present in both films, the discussion connected the cinematic narratives to the lived psychological realities of Palestinians across Palestine and the diaspora.
From a filmmaking perspective, Keti spoke about the formal cinematic choices through which both films articulate trauma — through silence, soundscape, fractured temporality, restrained dialogue, stillness, landscape, and the absence of explicit violence. The discussion explored how cinematic form itself becomes a language of witnessing, carrying emotional and political realities that often exceed words.
Thank you to everyone who joined us, stayed for the conversation, and collectively held space with such care and attention throughout the evening♥️
🎥 by Michalis Ioannou
📸 Maria Antoniou, Michalis Ioannou, Anastasia Zanti
