A Sketch of Manners (Alfred Roch's Last Masquerade)

Jumana Manna
2013-04-29

A moment from history animated by actors in the present juxtaposes the class structures and contradictions of the cultural scene of Palestine, then and today.
8
12 min

Alfred Roch, member of the Palestinian National League, is a politician with a bohemian panache. In 1942, at the height of WWII, he throws what will turn out to be the last masquerade in Palestine. Inspired by an archival photograph, A Sketch of Manners (Alfred Roch’s Last Masquerade) recreates an unconventional bon vivant aspect of Palestinian urban life before 1948. Posing silently for a group photo, the unmasked and melancholic pierrots accidentally personify the premonition of an uncertain future.