Exhibited at Atletika Gallery (Vilnius, Lithuania)
12 November - 06 December 2025
Their Eyes Will Sear Holes In The Night Sky is a short film by Bianca Hisse and Laura Cemin, in collaboration with Al Huriya Dabke, a Palestinian dance group based in Helsinki, whose practice the film follows. The group consists of people from Palestine together with Finnish participants who have chosen to learn and carry forward the tradition of dancing Dabke. Spanning different ages and backgrounds, the group gathers weekly in Helsinki to dance as an act of resistance in the face of ongoing erasure.
Dabke is a traditional line dance originating from the Levant, where it has long marked moments of joy and collective strength. Across Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, Dabke takes on distinct rhythms and steps, yet the dance is bound by its core spirit of unity: a communal movement, marked by synchronized stomping, where each step reverberates through the ground and through the group.
In Dabke, the dancers traditionally join hands or shoulders to form a line that curves into a half-circle or open arc. The never-closed circle formation is a gesture outwards, as a continuous invitation for others to join, witness, and participate. For Palestinians, Dabke has become more than celebration – it is a practice of endurance, a refusal to forget, and a living manifestation of a culture threatened by displacement and occupation.
The film documents the group’s weekly rehearsal, showing how Dabke is learned and transmitted across generations, languages, and different lived experiences of the dance. Alongside the powerful harmony and togetherness of the choreography, the film draws attention to moments of translation and misinterpretation in learning the steps, showing how steps are modified and meanings reshaped through practice. The work reflects on how displacement challenges and transforms cultural practices, revealing dance as a dynamic, shared language that links people across places and backgrounds.
Screenings:
Moving in November, Helsinki, 2025
Lydgalleriet, Bergen, 2025
Trondheim Kunsthall, 2025
BO - Billedkunstnerne i Oslo, 2025
Duration: 10 min
Language: English and Arabic, English and Arabic subtitles
The title Their Eyes Will Sear Holes in the Night Sky is a reference to the poem Conversation by Palestinian-American poet Lisa Suhair Majaj.
By: Laura Cemin, Bianca Hisse
In collaboration with: Al Huriya Dabke
Group leader: Tareq Abu Nahel
Dancers: Radja Abuzaid, Tareq Abu Nahel, Moe Awashra, Kaisa Kerman, Sham Khlouf, Niina Lisma, Mohammad Thawabi, Jad Thawabi, Katja Toivonen
Cinematographer and visual advisor: Roberta Segata
Composer / Sound Producer: Larie
Sound Artistic Director: Saya Mohamed