CONCEPT

1917 was the year of dramatic events in Russia, but also elsewhere. Two months after the October revolution in St. Petersburg, Jerusalem was transferred from centuries-long Muslim rule to the jurisdiction of a hristian monarch. Provincial town of the Ottoman Empire became an ambitious urban project of the British Empire in the Middle East. From the moment General Edmund Allenby entered the Jaffa Gate and up to this day Jerusalem has experienced accelerating change, deleting traces of its Ottoman past. However, the character of contemporary Jerusalem is still based on the contradictory blend of East and West, which can be fully comprehended only through the re-examination of the critical "tipping
point" – 1917.

The aim of the Festival is to study historical and literary sources to create immersive experience of the city 100 years ago, to examine the foundations of urban life laid at the time, when Jerusalem found itself between two empires, and uncover the traces of Ottoman heritage still influencing the life of the modern city.