WINNER of ZEBRA FILM PRIZE for Best Poetry Film
literaturwerkstatt.org/en/literaturwerkstatt-berlin/news/current-news/die-gewinner-des-7-zebra-poetry-film-festival
WINNER 2nd place Masr.Bokra Film Festival
mdbfilmfestival.com/en/Winners.aspx
'The Dice Player' is an Animated Poetry film that visualizes a poem written by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. It was recited in the live event 'In the Shade of Words' 2008, along with harmonies by the band Le Trio Joubran. (Subtitles are available)
This is a Bachelor project made in the faculty of Applied Sciences and Arts in the GUC
'The Dice Player'
Who am I to tell you this?
I was never a drenched rock
Refined to become a face
Nor a cane that has been
Perforated by the winds
To become a flute
I am the dice player
At times I win, at times I lose
I’m the same as all of you
Maybe a little less
Not a role I played in what I’ve become
If this farm hadn’t been ravaged
Maybe I would’ve turned into an olive
Or a professor of geography
Or an expert in an ant colony
Or a guardian Of echoes
Who am I to tell you this?
I was rewarded more awakenings
Not to relish my moony nights
But to witness the butchering
I survived coincidentally
Too small for a shooting target
But bigger than a bee,
Fluttering amid the fence grass
And I worried and worried
About my father
About my brothers
And I worried about a time made of glass
And so the fear strolled within me
And I strolled in its path
Barefoot … hollow
Leaving behind my childhood memories
And the dreams I had for tomorrow
There is no tomorrow
There is no tomorrow
I walk,
I scamper, I run,
I go up and down,
I scream and wail
I rush, slow down and inhale
I feel lighter, drier,
I stride and fly,
I run, I forget
I see, I don’t see
I remember, hear and behold
I fantasize,
I hallucinate
I whisper and scream
I can’t
I fall, I rise
then collapse,
bleed,
and I black out.
Animated by: Nissmah Roshdy
