Mathijs Poppe, Ours is a country of words

Ours is a Country of Words is filmed in Shatila, a refugee camp built in Lebanon when thousands of Palestinians fled their country in 1948. The story begins at an undetermined moment in the future, when the dream of the Palestinian refugees to go back to Palestine becomes reality. The film balances on the thin line between fiction and documentary, between dream and reality. Families are preparing for their fictional return, while it slowly becomes clear that this dream is far removed from their daily life in the camp. Through the words they use as actors to talk about the dream of returning to their homeland, we can understand more thoroughly what it means to them to live in exile.