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The Imaginary Village

From Homelands Productions | Part of the Worlds of Difference series | 00:18:06
Producers: Sandy Tolan, Melissa Robbins

Credit:
The Imaginary Village is a story about the meaning of "home" for three generations of Palestinians living in refugee camps.

The Imaginary Village is a story about the longing for home. It is told almost entirely in the voices of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon. Some fled their villages in 1948; others only know those villages through the stories, photos, songs and maps preserved by their parents and grandparents. The voices are accompanied by an original musical score played on the oud, or Middle Eastern lute.

Producer Sandy Tolan has been visiting the Holy Land for ten years as a reporter and author. Over the years, he has been increasingly impressed by the depth and strength of the Palestinians' attachment to their homeland, despite the fact that they have not lived there in more than 50 years. That attachment, Tolan believes, is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but is rarely covered by the press. Tolan is the author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (2006).

Co-producer Melissa Robbins is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.

The piece debuted on Transom.org on June 5, 2004. It is part of Worlds of Difference (http://homelands.org/worlds), a series by Homelands Productions that examines questions of identity, tradition and connectedness in a rapidly changing world. Hide full description

The Imaginary Village is a story about the longing for home. It is told almost entirely in the voices of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon. Some fled their villages in 1948; others only know those villages through the stories, photos, songs and maps preserved by their parents and grandparents. The voices are accompanied by an original musical score played on the oud, or Middle Eastern lute. Producer Sandy Tolan has been visiting the Holy Land for ten years as a reporter and author. Over the years, he has been increasingly impressed by the depth and strength of the Palestinians' attachment to thei...
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Marymcgrath_square

Mary McGrath

Posted on June 13, 2004 at 06:04 PM | Permalink

Review of The Imaginary Village

This is a lovely impressionistic piece rich with imagery and feeling. More than a story or narrative, it's a record of loss and it succeeds by working almost entirely on an emotional level. It's stirring and stays with you; it's maddening and confounding. Seen from here, the Middle East conflict looks impenetrable and the headlines simply repetitive and tiresome. Seen from the Imaginary Village, it seems much closer to home.

Broadcast History

This story was produced for transom.org, where it debuted in 2004.

Transcript

Imaginary Village Script
By Sandy Tolan and Melissa Robbins

INTRO: Fifteen million people around the world live as refugees. And while the details of what drove them from home may be different, the longing to return is almost universal. Producer Sandy Tolan says he's witnessed that longing again and again in his visits to the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. As he has traveled and reported in the region, an image has remained lodged in his mind, of an old woman carrying the key to a house that was destroyed in 1948, in a village that was wiped off the map. Our next story is produced by Sandy Tolan and Melissa Robbins.

Abu Hani: This is the map of Palestine, contains all of the villages before the occupation of 1948. All the villages of Palestine.
And this is the name of our village. This is our village

YOU COULD BE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, REALLY: DETROIT
OR...
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Timing and Cues

INTRO: Fifteen million people around the world live as refugees. And while the details of what drove them from home may be different, the longing to return is almost universal. Producer Sandy Tolan says he's witnessed that longing again and again in his visits to the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. As he has traveled and reported in the region, an image has remained lodged in his mind, of an old woman carrying the key to a house that was destroyed in 1948, in a village that was wiped off the map. Our next story is produced by Sandy Tolan and Melissa Robbins.

OUTRO: That piece was produced by Sandy Tolan and Melissa Robbins for Homelands Productions. It is part of the Worlds of Difference series on global cultural change.

Musical Works

Original music was composed and performed by Mohsen Subhi Abdelhamid.

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