Thursday, May 28, we learned from numerous donors that the support fund for the financing of the film “Fedayin, the struggle of Georges Abdallah” was closed by the site http://lepotcommun.fr/ without any explanation to date. This fund had raised more than €8,000, which allowed us to finalize the budget for this project: purchase of numerous video archives, payment of two technicians, DVD pressing, etc. We condemn these unjust methods that amount to a form of censorship of a self-produced project aimed at shedding light on the commitment and trajectory of Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese communist imprisoned in France since 1984 who denounces the political-judicial persecution he has suffered for more than 35 years. After more than a year and a half of work, our project is in its final phase. We are forced to open a new fund to complete this film and we call on everyone to participate widely. We need your support now more than ever!

The Vacarme(s) Films team







FILM SUMMARY

For more than 35 years, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has been imprisoned. A Lebanese communist resistance fighter who fought alongside Palestinian combatants, he has been kept behind bars by the French justice system and successive governments since 1984. Beyond the relentless judicial persecution he suffers, this documentary seeks to retrace Georges Abdallah’s political trajectory and to show how his ideas and struggle remain as alive and necessary as ever. The film takes us to Lebanon, to the Palestinian refugee camps alongside whom he was politically formed. We follow his involvement in the Palestinian resistance and then against the Israeli occupation within the FARL (Fractions Armées Révolutionnaires Libanaises), a commitment that led him to France in the 1980s where he was convicted for complicity in assassination. Through a series of interviews (in France, Lebanon, Belgium and Germany), we meet his family, his lawyer, his close associates, his supporters, his comrades and people who knew him, and with whom we trace a life of resistance to imperialism and the Zionist occupation.

WHO IS GEORGES ABDALLAH?

Born in Kobayat in northern Lebanon in 1951, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah grew up in a Maronite Christian family. He became a teacher in the isolated villages of the northern Lebanese mountains, where he left the memory of a man driven by commitment and unwavering solidarity. He quickly became politicized alongside Palestinian refugees living in the many camps that developed in Lebanon following their massive expulsion from 1948 during the Nakba in Palestine. It was therefore natural that he joined the Palestinian resistance within the ranks of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (FPLP) in 1971. A few years later, he helped co-found the FARL (Fractions Armées Révolutionnaires Libanaises) to fight the allies of the Israeli occupation on Lebanese soil in 1982. He then continued his commitment in France. Georges Abdallah was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment for possession of forged documents (a passport issued by Algerian authorities). In 1987, he was convicted of complicity in the assassinations of Yacov Barsimentov (deputy secretary at the Israeli embassy in Paris) and Charles Ray (military attaché at the United States embassy in Paris), committed in 1982 and claimed by the FARL. Both were on missions in France for the intelligence services of their respective countries. From then on, a political-judicial machine was set in motion (his lawyer, Jean-Paul Mazurier, later admitted to having worked for the DST while defending Georges Abdallah; the French justice system accused the Abdallah brothers in Lebanon of attacks that would later be discovered to have been carried out by Iran; etc.). During that trial, in which the United States joined as a civil party, Georges Abdallah made a denunciation of the French justice system and imperialism. He was sentenced to life. Eligible for release since 1999, his eight requests for liberation were denied (by the justice system or by a governmental veto). Prison did not break his commitment; Georges Abdallah continues the political struggle from his cell in Lannemezan (65), where he receives many visits. Outside, for about fifteen years, his supporters have mobilized in France and across Europe to demand his release. Since October 24, Georges Abdallah has entered his 36th year behind bars.

WHY THIS FILM?

For several years we have campaigned, with many others, for the liberation of Georges Abdallah. Some of us visit him regularly and over the years have built a political relationship and trust. There are many mobilizations, actions and campaigns calling for the release of Georges Abdallah. There are also numerous video archives of these demonstrations. However, apart from a short film made by Secours Rouge a few years ago1 that retraces Georges Abdallah’s trajectory, to our knowledge there is no film that explores his history and political commitment in depth (Pierre Carles is also working on a documentary project2). It therefore seemed essential to us to try to remedy this. A year ago we launched this film project. Without pretension, we wish to add a new contribution to the mobilization for the liberation of Georges Abdallah. This documentary is intended above all to be a tool for understanding, information and discussion about the situation of Georges Abdallah and the struggle of the Palestinian people.

WHY THIS FUND?

For several months we have been working on the making of Fedayin. This work is resolutely political and entirely self-produced. After several shooting sessions in France, a shoot last summer in Lebanon, and shoots in Germany and Belgium, we have completed this first phase and are about to start the editing work, which will take several weeks. We have self-financed this project so far and receive no income from making this film. However, we now need a financial boost to complete it. The goal is obviously to be able to screen this film as widely as possible at a series of screenings in France and abroad, on the internet, and also by pressing DVDs.

We therefore need your help for:

part of the post-production work (color grading and sound mixing)

the film’s distribution: website, posters, DVD pressing, etc.;

a partial reimbursement of our shooting expenses.

For any participation: your name in the credits:

From €10: your name in the credits + a film poster
From €25: your name in the credits + a film poster + the DVD of the film

THE COLLECTIVE

Vacarme(s) Films is a collective producing documentary films driven by a political commitment to fight all forms of domination.

The collective’s main ambition is for these works to serve as tools and support for reflection, debate and collective organization.

https://www.lepotcommun.fr/pot/9452awzl#sdfootnote1anc– Film by Secours Rouge – https://youtu.be/-mKhuEDT-CU

https://www.lepotcommun.fr/pot/9452awzl#sdfootnote2anc – “We want Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in jail”