In the Palestinian artist’s film, violence lurks in what’s left only half said
In Shuruq Harb’s The White Elephant (2018), set in the 1990s, the narrator – a young Palestinian teenager – is speaking to her dead friend. We only hear her voice, which is layered over and intercut with videos that give a glimpse into Israeli life and pop culture during that decade. She recounts her experience attending a trance music festival in Israel with her boyfriend. Her intonation remains mostly nonchalant, while her tone ranges from confessional (“I never told anyone”), to angry (“the stupid Oslo agreement”), to provocative (“I know you won’t approve of this…since you are dead, I no longer care what you think”).
Her words aren’t meant for us, and like most eavesdroppers, we have to extrapolate from the film’s context to get the full story: Tel Aviv, August 1993, one month before the signing of the first Oslo Accords (foundational agreements made between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation that established a peace process and phased autonomy plan) and the end of the First Intifada (the Palestinian uprising against Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, 1987–93). Found footage paints a picture of a visibly militarised but broadly joyful city, with several clips from trance music festivals. In one, an Israeli festivalgoer excitedly proclaims that they are witnessing history, referring to the event they are attending. Meanwhile violence lurks in what the narrator leaves only half-said, which the viewer might corroborate with history: the unequal treatment of Palestinians (“all I had to do was pretend to be an Israeli girl”); heavily restricted freedom of movement (“but driving the car back to Ramallah is the complicated part”); over 1,000 Palestinians – of whom more than 200 were children and teenagers – killed in the First Intifada (“he was just a kid”).
In a feature for the summer issue of ArtReview, Harb, whose own experience of coming of age in Palestine in the 90s informs the film, tells Stephanie Bailey that her work is about ‘being able to see how your life fits into a bigger picture’. In The White Elephant, Harb was reflecting on ‘the cognitive dissonance of growing up under a colonial occupation structurally maintained by a so-called liberal world-order,’ writes Bailey. But the film also makes clear how such structures have remained in place, both in 2018 when the film was made and now.
Screening dates:
Art Lovers Movie Club: Shuruq Harb, The White Elephant, 2018, video (colour, sound), 12 min
23 June – 27 July 2026
© Courtesy the artist
Writer & Director: Shuruq Harb
Editors: Shuruq Harb and Ameen Nayfeh
Camera: Mirna Bamieh and Marwan Asad
Actor: Sofia Harb
Shuruq Harb (b. 1980) is an artist, filmmaker and writer based in Ramallah. Her work has been shown internationally in various institutions and festivals. Her film The White Elephant received the award for best short film at the Cinema du Reel Festival in Paris (2018), and was shortlisted for the Hamburg International Short Film Festival (2019). She was the winner of the Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant of the Han Nefkens Foundation in 2019. Harb is also the producer of Al Mashrou’ (2024).
Each month in Art Lovers Movie Club, we select artists’ videos and screen them exclusively online at artreview.com. Explore the archive
