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

Directed by Jumana Manna

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.

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.