R21 aka Restoring Solidarity is a film about making a film, it’s also a film about films, it exists on the margins of documentary, fiction, and an archive, the plot is about making a film out of a collection of 20 films, the film no. 21 is made out of the intention to send a message of solidarity, it’s the act of reaching out, asking questions, but looking, together, the filmmaker and the audience, entangles with speculations, hope and politics of an era, when films projected not only the struggle, but also the politics of a solidarity movement with Palestine.

R21 comes as an addition to and a reflection on a collection of 20 16mm films, safeguarded in Tokyo by the Japanese solidarity movement with Palestine. It’s an undelivered solidarity letter written by a Japanese activist that was lost on its way to a Palestinian filmmaker. Fragments of the letter are found throughout the collection and compiled into an imagined structure that reveals itself during the film.

R21 aka Restoring Solidarity acts as a catalog, the film as a time machine, the film as an archive. The themes that Reel no. 21 deals with, reveal themselves in the form of a montage essay. At the same time, the act of restoring these films brings out motives, aspirations, and the disappearance of a generation and its struggles, not only in Japan, but around the world.

The word “archive” is usually referred to as a building that holds documents, and according to Achille Mbembe, this “archive” status and power is derived from this entanglement of building and documents. In the Palestinian case, the building of an archive does not exist, since the land of Palestine is under occupation, and the documents of the Palestinians are scattered all around the globe. So, when we say that this film is an archive, we suggest its narrative structure as a “building” that holds a collection of films, of documents.

The film is a homage to the Japanese solidarity group that collected and screened these films around Japan, in classes, in political settings, touring cinemas, and community centers. It is also a thank you letter, from Palestinian filmmakers to their Japanese counterparts, for keeping these films safe, and for telling a story of people’s struggle imprinted not only on celluloid, but on the consciousness of a generation.

For more information about the collection, please visit www.tokyoreels.com

Mohanad Yaqubi

Awards and festivals:

Tokyo Reels Film Festival, documenta 15 (2022); IDFA (2022) – world premiere; Jerusalem IFF (2022) – winner of Olive d’Or; True/False Film Festival (2023); Melbourne IFF (2023), Jakarta IFF (2023); Contour Biennale (2023), Archivio Aperto Festival Bologna (2023); Safar Film Festival (2023); AFLAM Festival; Palestine Cinema Days Ramallah (2023); Marrakech Film Festival (2023)