AllMovie

Jaffa was a prosperous port city and a productive community in Palestine before the State of Israel was established in 1948. Jaffa was part of the territory pledged to the new nation, and since then Israel has been slowing struggling to dismantle the city, a process that continues to this day. Filmmaker Kamal Aljafari explores the fate of a handful of Jafa's present day residents in the documentary Port Of Memory (aka Minaa Elzakira). The film focuses on a family who've been told that, after living in the same home for forty years, they're squatting on Israeli soil and must vacate. The man of the house looks for ways to fight his eviction, but learns the best he can practically expect is getting some money for his home from the Israeli government. His sister launches a campaign to protest the evictions, but most in the neighborhood are too resigned to their fate to care. And as the community slowly grinds to a halt, the residents bide their time in their individual ways, from wandering the streets to watching an old Chuck Norris movie that was shot in Jaffa. Port Of Memory received its North American premiere at the 2010 San Francisco International Film Festival.