While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. She challenges the film’s director, Sarah Beddington to find an ancient mulberry tree that stands as witness to her family’s existence – with only inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon as her guides. Along the way, Sarah meets with ornithologists whose observations on the homing instincts of the birds inadvertently reveal the unresolved problems of the region.

Spanning 15 years, this is a story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land and a fragmented people, adopting a birds’ eye perspective to reflect on freedom of movement, exile, and the hope of return.

Following the screening there will be a Q&A with the Director Sarah Beddington.

Sarah Beddington is a visual artist and filmmaker based in London. Her works in film and video, sculpture, performance and public art, explore the overlaps between the historical, the mythical and the everyday, often focusing on journeys and migration.

She has completed many multi and single-screen film and video works that have been shown internationally in film festivals, museums, non-profit spaces and galleries including: Sheffield DocFest; Liverpool Biennale; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MASS MoCA, USA; FidMarseille International Film Festival; LOOP film and video festival, Barcelona; Hayward Gallery, London; San Francisco Film Festival; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio and The Drawing Center, New York. Her work can be seen in many public collections including Arts Council England. Fadia’s Tree is Beddington’s first feature length film.