Aicha lives a quiet, secluded life with her husband, Brahim, and her youngest son, Adam, in a remote village in northern Tunisia. Gifted with prophetic dreams, Aicha and her family live in anguish after the departure of their eldest sons Mehdi and Amine to the violent embrace of war. When Mehdi unexpectedly returns home with a mysterious pregnant wife, Reem, his return also triggers strange events and old wounds in the village, creating a darkness that threatens to consume them all.

Caught between maternal love and her search for the truth, Aïcha welcomes Mehdi and Reem into the family home and vows to protect them at all costs, despite the suspicions of her husband Brahim. Aicha is forced to balance her overwhelming maternal love with her pursuit of the truth behind Mehdi’s experiences, and the painful revelations that challenge her deepest beliefs.

Academy Award-nominated director Meryam Joobeur skilfully utilises magic realism to create a stunning dream-like world and pose serious questions on family, war, and the destructive impact of extremist rhetoric on familial relationships.

Who Do I Belong To is screening as part of SAFAR’s GHOSTS strand, curated by Saeed Taji Farouky. After the screening, join Saeed in a ceremony which sits at the heart of this selection of films.

The ghosts of Palestine represent both the trauma of the past, and simultaneously a continuity of Palestinian culture and inherited strategies of liberation. Our relationship with wild plants and flowers encapsulates these parallel struggles. Following the screening of Who Do I Belong To, anticolonial artist and performer Gamze Şanlı will lead participants through a tea-making workshop with wild plants and flowers, in which the political and folkloric traditions of the plants will be shared.