Screening of They Do Not Exist (1974)

Director: Mustafa Abu Ali.

Duration: 25 minutes

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They Do Not Exist is a landmark 1974 Palestinian documentary short film directed by militant filmmaker Mustafa Abu Ali. Widely considered a cornerstone of Palestinian revolutionary and national cinema, the 25-minute film serves as both a profound work of political activist filmmaking and an avant-garde aesthetic experiment. 

The title was born as a direct, defiant response to an infamous statement by former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who claimed, "There was no such thing as Palestinians... They did not exist"

Shot under extraordinary and hazardous conditions, the film documents daily life and the humanitarian crisis within the Nabatieh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.

It captures the devastating aftermath of Israeli bombardments and the May 1974 Nabatieh camp massacre, juxtaposing civilian suffering with the training of fedayeen (guerrillas) in armed resistance camps.

Abu Ali co-founded the Palestine Film Unit (PFU) in 1969, which later transitioned into the Palestinian Cinema Institution (PCI). During Israel's 1982 invasion of Beirut, the PCI archive building was targeted and destroyed, resulting in the loss of the vast majority of early Palestinian revolutionary cinema.

They Do Not Exist was one of the few precious works salvaged from the ruins of Beirut. Because the physical archive was destroyed, the film remained largely unavailable to the public for decades.

The film finally received its national premiere in Palestine in 2003. Because Israel barred Abu Ali from entering his hometown of Jerusalem, a group of Palestinian artists clandestinely smuggled the filmmaker into the city for a makeshift screening. Seeing his film for the first time in over 20 years, Abu Ali poignantly remarked: “We used to say 'Art for the Struggle,' now it's 'Struggle for the Art.'”