Het gevecht om Tripolitanië

Lecture by curator Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi illustrated by historical images from the Eye collection on the colonial context of the film Kiff Tebbi, which screens this evening accompanied by live music from Marmoucha Orchestra.

1912: Italy conquers the North African city of Tripoli and much of the surrounding area from the Ottomans, who have ruled there for centuries. This colonial war was fought not only on the battlefield, but also on cinema screens owing to the use of film (both newsreels and fiction films) as propaganda. Film was hardly twenty years old as a medium, making its impact all the greater.

Kiff Tebbi (Arabic for 'As you will') is an example of a film used in this struggle. This first film by Italian film producer Aida Company – subsidised by Mussolini’s government – promotes to a certain extent the Italian fascist regime’s imperial policy in Libya: in the film, Turkish soldiers are the ‘bad guys’ and the Italians eventually bring freedom and salvation, in a textbook example of modifying reality to meet the demands of the day.

At this screening, Eye curator Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi will discuss the history of the Italo-Turkish war, illustrating this with images from Eye’s own collection, including newsreel footage of Mussolini being cheered during his visit to Libya in 1937.

At 20:15 that evening, Kiff Tebbi screens in Cinema 1, accompanied by live music from Marmoucha Orchestra.