Impact Days Catalogue
fifdh
By Asmahan Bkerat and Asmahan Bkerat

Concrete Land

Kayan
Image du film Concrete Land - FIFDH 2023
IMPACT DAYS

The Najars, a Palestinian Bedouin family, have endured exile for over three decades. On the outskirts of Amman, Jordan, they live in harmony with their animals and their beloved 10-year-old pet sheep, Badrya, by their side. Eman, a young girl coming of age, is embracing a city lifestyle despite her Bedouin identity. Her father, Awad, is a cement truck driver for a big cement company, unwittingly contributing to the challenges they face. While their traditional shepherd grandfather, Abuawad, managed to keep his Bedouin life despite his exile. But in recent years, their area has transformed into a high-class neighborhood, disrupting the Najar’s quiet Bedouin life and dreams as construction encroaches on them. Abuawad’s health is in decline as it takes a heavy toll on him to lose his animals due to urbanization. With no governmental policies to protect them, Awad makes the painful decision to uproot his family, returning to a rural Bedouin lifestyle and sacrificing Eman’s future.

Sections : Impact Days, Impact Days
Country : Jordan
Original language : Arabic
Directors
Asmahan Bkerat
Asmahan Bkerat (Jordan)
Producers
Ban Maraqa
Ban Maraqa (Jordan)
Asmahan Bkerat (Jordan)
Kayan Productions
Editing
Ban Maraqa (Jordan)
Completion
2024
Impact Statement
Concrete Land is an intimate look at displacement, racism, and gentrification through the story of the Al Najar family, a close-knit Bedouin family navigating their relationship with the modern world. The central dilemma is about how to maintain their tradition and way of life while facing displacement due to societal biases. Our impact plan seeks to change the inadequate access to services (including education and health care) for Bedouins. We'll work with the local community groups to assess the community's needs and set up long-term solutions, like bringing their sheep back and connecting them back to the local market, which will improve the lives of the Bedouin community.
With our film, we aim to support Bedouin sustainability, celebrate their heritage, foster film culture, and improve their health and education services.
Impact Goals
  1. Achieving financial sustainability for the family and other Bedouins: through bringing back the animals they lost, connecting them to the local market to sell their animal products, and making an income from them.
  2. Fund extensive research on the Nakab Bedouins to document their lifestyle and intangible heritage and include it in national/ international museums.
  3. Cinema on wheels: Host screenings to the Bedouin community and to remote areas to create a film culture (Impact through cinema).
  4. Find a way to improve health and education services for the Bedouin minorities.
Impact Strategy
  • Help the family to establish a business, securing/leasing a piece of land, to generate a steady income by selling products derived from the animals.
  • Connect the family and other Bedouins to local markets to change the perspective of meat sourcing and encourage buying from them instead of industrial farms.
  • Fund extensive research on the Nakab Bedouins to document their lifestyle and intangible heritage, and include it in national museums.
  • Cinema on wheels: host screenings for the Bedouin community and to remote areas to create a film culture (Impact through cinema).
  • Sentiment analysis surveys pre and post screenings, to determine change of perception towards the film subjects.
  • Start a community centre in partnership with existing organisations where al-Naqab Bedouin would have a place where they can gather and hold community activities: workshops and trainings to make their Indigenous art, traditional weaving and hand-made embroidery to sell and sustainably run the centre and benefit the community. Also engage audiences with the Bedouin way of life.
Contact
Primary contact
Asmahan Bkerat (Jordan): bk.asmahan@gmail.com
Participants present at the Impact Days
Ban Maraqa (Jordan)
Asmahan Bkerat (Jordan)

Media
Samya Ayesh, CNN Arabic

Media
Samya Ayesh, CNN Arabic