Foragers

Attend a special screening of artist Jumana Manna’s latest film, Foragers (2022), followed by a conversation between Manna and Rabea Eghbariah, a human rights lawyer who collaborated with Manna on the script.

On view as part of Manna’s first major US exhibition, Jumana Manna: Break, Take, Erase, Tally, the film weaves together documentary and fiction to trace the precarious practice of gathering wild edibles in Palestine/Israel. Foragers from Golan Heights, the Galilee, and Jerusalem are portrayed navigating restrictions that have been placed on certain wild plants—notably ‘akkoub (gundelia) and za’atar (thyme). Manna follows the foragers as they are pursued by nature patrollers, and subsequent courtroom prosecutions, as well as the circulation of the plants from mountainside to kitchen table.

Rabea Eghbariah is a doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School and a human rights attorney with the Haifa-based Adalah Legal Center. He has researched Israel’s nature protection laws, represented Palestinian foragers in Israeli courts, and led the legal challenge against the criminalization of foraging za'atar and ‘akkoub.

Jumana Manna (b. 1987) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her exhibition Take, Break, Erase, Tally, is on view at MoMA PS1 through April 17, 2023.