Your Strength Gives me Strength: Home and the Palestinian Scottish Diaspora

Where do you find home when home is a place you can't return to?

Said the Dove to the Olive Tree is a film and digital spoken word piece created by Amira Al Shanti, exploring intimate questions of belonging faced by Palestinians in Scotland. It's a visually captivating story of places and landscapes, collective and individual identities, where the human and non-human environments of Palestine and Scotland meet.

After the 12-minute film screening, actor and writer Amira Al Shanti discusses the stories behind the film, how we create the foundations of home for each other, and what solidarity for Palestine looks like in Scotland today, with Xuanlin Tham, Programmer at Take One Action Film Festivals.

Our speaker:

Amira Al Shanti is a Scottish-Palestinian actor, singer and writer, represented by Infinity Artists. Her most recent work has included writing and starring in Said the Dove to the Olive Tree (Interabang Productions); her West End debut in the world premiere of Rumi at the London Coliseum; and providing Arabic voiceover work in the National Theatre of Scotland's screenplay adaptation of Adam (BBC Scotland). Previous theatre work has included Muslim Women's Stories (2021; Stellar Quines and Glasgow Women's Stories), Deloris (Sister Act, Captivate Theatre), Aida (Aida, Glasgow Live Productions), Amy March (Little Women, Mad Props Theatre), Mary Magdalene (Jesus Christ Superstar, Kelty Musical Association), Wendla Bergman (Spring Awakening, Glasgow Live Productions) and Lizzie (Elephants, Threepenny Theatricals). She has previously worked as a singer with The Vintage Girls and Little Mix Magic, and spends the occasional weekend dressing up as Princess Jasmine and Moana with Wish Upon a Star Entertainment. Amira's recent written work has been published in Issues 2 and 3 of Dardishi Zine; and previous pieces of writing have been published by The Herald: "Letters to JK Rowling" and "Being BROWN GIRL".