Solothurn honours Edna Politi, a filmmaker shaped by exile, memory and resistance

Lebanese-born, Geneva-based filmmaker Edna Politi is the first non-Swiss to be chosen as guest of honour of the most important event of the Swiss film scene, highlighting her singular look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last year was full of good surprises for Edna Politi. Le Quatuor des Possibles (The Quartet of the Possibles), her 1992 documentary about a quartet by the avant-garde composer Luigi Nono was chosen as one of the 1,000 films in UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Her first three films, For the Palestinians, an Israeli Witnesses (1974), Like the Sea and its Waves (1980), and Anou Banou, or the Daughters of Utopia (1983) have been restored and will be shown in a retrospective at Solothurn. When asked how she felt about being the first person with an immigrant background to be the guest of honour at the Solothurn Film Days, she said she was surprised – but honoured. “I was taking this homage as a Genevan, for I’ve been living in this city for more than 40 years,” she ...