An interview with Amos Gitai on House
When the Lebanese playwright Wajdi Mouawad invited Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai to stage his documentary trilogy House (1980, 1998, 2005) at the Théâtre national de la Colline in 2023, geopolitical animosities made way for artistic solidarities. In this article and interview, I explore how Gitai’s p...
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| Language: | English |
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Liverpool University Press
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Francosphères |
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| Online Access: | http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/franc.2023.12 |
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| author | Joanne Brueton |
| author_facet | Joanne Brueton |
| author_sort | Joanne Brueton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When the Lebanese playwright Wajdi Mouawad invited Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai to stage his documentary trilogy House (1980, 1998, 2005) at the Théâtre national de la Colline in 2023, geopolitical animosities made way for artistic solidarities. In this article and interview, I explore how Gitai’s play critiques the violent logics of home and homelands, exploring how a commandeered house in West Jerusalem plays host to the multidirectional memory of violent Jewish and Palestinian erasure. Stones become metonyms of the Israel–Palestine conflict: as they are quarried, chiselled, split, cemented, and erected, they testify to the construction of homes that also become tools of destruction, expulsion, and mutual ontological violence (Kotef, 2020). Drawing on an interview I conducted with Gitai in July 2023, and his Collège de France lectures from 2018 to 2019, I read his archaeological journey into the remains of this Arab-Jewish house as a call to hospitality (Derrida, 1997): troubling the subject positions of host and hostage that both underpin and impede a ‘chez soi’. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8fea0e13dc3147eba82cf492df02992f |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2046-3820 2046-3839 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Liverpool University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Francosphères |
| spelling | doaj-art-8fea0e13dc3147eba82cf492df02992f2025-08-20T02:24:59ZengLiverpool University PressFrancosphères2046-38202046-38392023-12-0112215917610.3828/franc.2023.12An interview with Amos Gitai on HouseJoanne Brueton0University of London in ParisWhen the Lebanese playwright Wajdi Mouawad invited Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai to stage his documentary trilogy House (1980, 1998, 2005) at the Théâtre national de la Colline in 2023, geopolitical animosities made way for artistic solidarities. In this article and interview, I explore how Gitai’s play critiques the violent logics of home and homelands, exploring how a commandeered house in West Jerusalem plays host to the multidirectional memory of violent Jewish and Palestinian erasure. Stones become metonyms of the Israel–Palestine conflict: as they are quarried, chiselled, split, cemented, and erected, they testify to the construction of homes that also become tools of destruction, expulsion, and mutual ontological violence (Kotef, 2020). Drawing on an interview I conducted with Gitai in July 2023, and his Collège de France lectures from 2018 to 2019, I read his archaeological journey into the remains of this Arab-Jewish house as a call to hospitality (Derrida, 1997): troubling the subject positions of host and hostage that both underpin and impede a ‘chez soi’.http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/franc.2023.12architecturemultidirectional memoryIsraelPalestinesettler colonialismpostcolonial |
| spellingShingle | Joanne Brueton An interview with Amos Gitai on House Francosphères architecture multidirectional memory Israel Palestine settler colonialism postcolonial |
| title | An interview with Amos Gitai on House |
| title_full | An interview with Amos Gitai on House |
| title_fullStr | An interview with Amos Gitai on House |
| title_full_unstemmed | An interview with Amos Gitai on House |
| title_short | An interview with Amos Gitai on House |
| title_sort | interview with amos gitai on house |
| topic | architecture multidirectional memory Israel Palestine settler colonialism postcolonial |
| url | http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/franc.2023.12 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT joannebrueton aninterviewwithamosgitaionhouse AT joannebrueton interviewwithamosgitaionhouse |