Revolutionaries Never Die

In 2018, Lebanese filmmaker and journalist Jocelyne Saab (Palestinian Women, Beirut, My City, The Razor's Edge, Dunia) approached Palestinian filmmaker and researcher Mohanad Yaqubi with the idea of working together. Two months later, Saab died before receiving a response. Awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival, Revolutionaries Never Die takes us on a lyrical journey through Saab's life, her political commitment, and her body of work, which portrayed the Arab world with a rare degree of authenticity. Saab was an exceptional filmmaker, relentlessly committed to the pursuit of truth and to telling the stories of the oppressed. This film is Yaqubi's long-delayed response: an unconventional cinematic collaboration that imagines what their dialogue might have become.

Revolutionaries Never Die keeps alive Saab's remarkable legacy as a filmmaker and war correspondent and introduces her work to a wider audience by assembling fragments of her films and reportage in chronological order. The result is a compelling and vivid portrait of a militant documentary filmmaker, as well as of the history and people of the Middle East and North Africa - regions whose realities have often been misinterpreted through the political and economic frameworks of the Western world. The film reflects both Saab's remarkable political commitment and her role as a filmmaker from the 1970s onwards, drawing a vivid parallel with the Palestinian reality of today.

Locarno Film Festival – Special Jury Prize in Concorso Cineasti del Presente section
BFI London Film Festival

Mohanad Yaqubi is a Palestinian filmmaker, producer, and film educator, and one of the founders of Idioms Film, a Palestinian production company specializing in arthouse cinema. He is also a member of the Subversive Film curatorial collective, which focuses on the tradition of militant cinema. This is a countercultural, independent movement in film politics and film art that uses the moving image as an ideological and pedagogical tool in the struggle against colonial and oppressive powers. Its primary goal is to mobilize viewers, rather than to entertain them. Archival footage documenting international solidarity movements plays a central role in Yaqubi's research-based creative practice. By reinterpreting these materials, he forges a connection between the historical documents and the living memory.

His works have been featured at prestigious festivals such as the Toronto, Berlin, Dubai, and Melbourne International Film Festivals, as well as documenta 15.

Off Frame aka Revolution Until Victory (2015)
R21 aka Restoring Solidarity (2022)

Original title: Revolutionaries Never Die
Director: Mohanad Yaqubi
Cast (voice): Mohanad Yaqubi, Jocelyne Saab
Cinematography: -
Screenwriters: Mohanad Yaqubi, Mathilde Rouxel
Producers: Sami Saeed, Mohanad Yaqubi
Editor: Elettra Bisogno
Music: Raf Enckels
Hungarian Distributor: -
Colour: colour, black and white
Run Time: 82 mins