Leila and the Wolves

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Leila and the Wolves is a film that reveals a nearly forgotten past of women’s struggle in Palestine and Lebanon attempting to retell these regional narratives from a feminist perspective. As John Akomfrah has written, Leila and the Wolves “weaves a rich tableau of history, folklore, myth and archival material.”

The female protagonist (Nabila Zeitoni) is a Lebanese student living in London in the 1980s, where she is staging a photography exhibition in which women are the unsung heroines of political conflict. Through time-travelling sequences spanning from the 1900s to the 1980s, she traverses both real and imaginary landscapes of Lebanon and Palestine.

In an interview from 2020, the filmmaker says: “Nowadays, Leila and the Wolves is travelling the world again, more relevant than ever; my unconscious and the collective unconscious of the women of the Middle East spoke together throughout the extreme conditions of making this film.”

CREDIT: restored by CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée. Selected for Venice Classics 2021.

This film is supported by Leeds Palestinian Film Festival (LPFF). Now in its 10th Year, LPFF was established with the following aims:

• To tell the stories of Palestine as widely, accessibly and powerfully as possible 

• To amplify Palestinian voices by featuring Palestinian film-makers, speakers and artists 

For more information about the festival and their plans for 2024 please visit www.leedspff.org.uk