I did a lot of research into Palestinian folktales and oral history traditions - I decided to focus on the traditions of oral history and add a cultural twist to this story in specific was because of the idea that the characters could not ‘see’ what they pictured, and I wanted to make changes that kept this idea about having different truths with Jinn, who are infamous creatures that influence my culture and history despite being invisible to us. We remember these stories through oral storytelling, and this is helpful today in recovering the past through collecting accounts of the experience of lives set on paths of exile. Consequently, it changes the meaning and ultimate takeaway of the original story – so rather than being about putting parts together of what they physically experienced, it becomes about understanding different things can all be true at once, and this preservation of personal history, passed down orally over time, becomes an important source for understanding and recognizing the past.
