Official Trailer for Sci-Fi Doc ‘Lyd’ – About an Ancient City in Palestine
by Alex Billington
April 9, 2024
Source: YouTube
“I want to prosper again.” Icarus Films has revealed an official trailer for Lyd, a documentary film about a Palestinian city that is now an Israeli city. This is opening in the US in very limited theaters (starting in New York at the Firehouse Cinema) later in April, with more to follow. A story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world – what it once was, what it is now, and what it could have become. It’s called a “sci-fi” doc because it presents a look at what this city would’ve been if the Israeli occupation never occurred. Using never-before-seen archival footage of the Israeli soldiers who carried out the massacre & expulsion, the city explains these events were so devastating that they fractured her reality, and now there are two Lyds –– one occupied and one free. As the film unfolds, it follows a chorus of characters through their daily lives – and vivid animations use the language of speculative fiction to envision an alternate reality where the same doc characters live free from the trauma of the past and the violence of the present. As the film shifts between fantastical & documentary realities, it ultimately leaves the viewer questioning which future should prevail. A powerful & important work of cinema that not only examines the truth but also uses art to make us think.
Official trailer (+ poster art) for Rami Younis & Sarah Ema Friedland’s doc Lyd, from YouTube (via TFS):
This sci-fi documentary shares multiple pasts, presents, and futures of the city of Lyd in Palestine / Israel. From the perspective of the city herself, voiced by Palestinian actress Maisa Abd Elhadi, the viewer is guided through the lifespan of a five-thousand-year-old city and its residents. Lyd was once a thriving Palestinian city with a rich history. In 636AD, it was even considered the first capital of Palestine. When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, Lyd became an Israeli city, and in the process, hundreds of Lyd’s Palestinian residents were massacred by Israeli forces, and most of the city’s 50,000 Palestinian residents were exiled. Today, the city has a Jewish Israeli majority and a Palestinian minority and is disinvested & divided by racism & violence. For Palestinians, Lyd’s story is a painful and tragic fall from grace, which is why our film dares to ask: what would the city be like had the Israeli occupation of Lyd never happened?
Lyd is made by a team of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers – co-directed by Rami Younis (a Palestinian from Lyd) & Sarah Ema Friedland (based in NYC) – Sarah has also directed the doc films Thing with No Name, The Rink, and Here After previously. It’s produced by Sawsan Asfari (Palestinian) & Fivel Rothberg (Israeli). This initially premiered at the 2023 Amman Film Festival in Jordan last year, and it also played at the 2024 Melbourne Science Fiction Film Festival. Icarus Films will debut the doc Lyd in select US theaters (starting at the Firehouse Cinema in NYC) on April 26th, 2024. For more info, visit the film’s official site.