Akram Zaatari was born in 1966 in Saida, Lebanon. Lives and works in Beirut.
Taking a cue from Albert Camus’ epistolary essay “Letters to a German Friend,” in Letter to a Refusing Pilot,
Zaatari conducts both an investigation and a stirring tribute to an act of resistance (or forbearance) that marked
his childhood memories: the refusal of an Israeli pilot to bomb a boys’ high school on June 6, 1982 in south
Lebanon. Oscillating between documentary, essay and fiction, this elegant and multi-layered film and installation
combine personal and archival documents as it seeks to recuperate historical truth from the annals of personal
reminiscence, laced with both enchantment and fear. Framed like a coming-of-age filled with wonderment and
insuperable curiosity, Letter to a Refusing Pilot humanizes a personal gesture in face of a greater conflict.
(Kaelen Wilson-Goldie)
