The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

49 Endnotes 1 The origins of the Sri Lankan civil war extend to the period after British colonial rule ended in 1948, and in the drafting of the country’s first post-independence constitution. Sinhalese nationalists moved to replace English as the official language and in the process disavowed the Tamil language and all vernacular dialects. Charges of discrimination led to riots and a growing demand for an autonomous Tamil state in the north and east of the country. Increasing political confrontations followed, leading to military and terrorist hostilities that plunged the country into civil war. 2 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is commonly referred to as the LTTE or Tamil Tigers. 3 The title of the film refers to the Lebanese Christian president and Israel ally Bashir Gemayel, whose assassination in September 1982 triggered a violent anti-Muslim backlash and the massacre of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in Sabra and Shatila by Lebanese Phalangist militia units. 4 Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, interview with Claire Vassé, Film Boutique press kit, <http://medias. unifrance.org/medias/71/144/36935/presse/dp-anglais-je-veux-voir.pdf >, viewed 19 October 2009. 5 The term nakba was popularised after the publishing of Syrian historian Constantine Zurayk’s Ma’na al-Nakba (The Meaning of the Disaster) in 1948. 6 The Armenian Genocide during the Ottoman Empire is the first and arguably least addressed genocide of the twentieth century. The Turkey–Armenia genocide dispute remains primary to Turkey’s exclusion from the European Union and fulfilment of the Copenhagen Criteria. 7 Hana Makhmalbaf, Makhmalbaf Film House, <http://www.makhmalbaf.com/movies.php?m=72 >, viewed 19 October 2009. Hana Makhmalbaf Iran b.1988 Production still from Ruzhaye sabz (Green Days) 2009 / HD Video, colour, stereo, 87 minutes, Iran, Farsi (English subtitles) / Image courtesy: Wild Bunch, Paris