A Few Films That’ll Help You Get Informed About What’s Happening in Palestine
Context and history matter. Empower yourself with knowledge to understand how we got here. In solidarity 🇵🇸
This list is intended as a growing resource, so drop your recommendations for relevant films, documentaries and videos in the comments section.
Gaza Ghetto
Portrait of a Palestinian Family — The first feature documentary made in Gaza (1985), directed by PeÅ Holmquist, Joan Mandell & Pierre Bjorklund, and set in 1948-1984 Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp. Along with a long list of relevant films, it's free to stream through October 21st via Palestine Film Institute
Where Should the Birds Fly?
A compelling and moving Palestinian film based on the story of two remarkable young women, the future of Palestine, who personify the struggle to maintain humanity, humor and hope, to find some degree of normality in the brutal abnormality that has been imposed on them and Palestinians (via the Middle East Institute).
Aavailable to watch on Culture Unplugged
Jenin, Jenin
Directed and co-produced by Palestinian actor Mohammad Bakri, Jenin Jenin includes testimony from Jenin residents after the Israeli army's Defensive Wall operation.
Free to watch on YouTube.
Salt of this sea
A 2008 film directed by Annemarie Jacir.
Born in Brooklyn to Palestinian refugee parents, Soraya decides to journey to the country of her ancestry when she discovers that her grandfather’s savings have been frozen in a Jaffa bank account since his 1948 exile (via MUBI).
Available to watch on Netflix.
The present
A 2020 short film, directed by Farah Nabulsi & set in the West Bank.
On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping? (Via IMDB).
Available on Netflix
My neighbourhood
Mohammed El Kurd is a Palestinian teenager growing up in the heart of East Jerusalem. When Mohammed's family is forced to give up a part of their home to Israeli settlers, local residents begin peaceful protests and in a surprising turn, are quickly joined by scores of Israeli supporters. Mohammed comes of age in the face of unrelenting tension with his neighbors and unexpected cooperation with Israeli allies in his backyard. Available to watch via Just Vision
Frontiers of dreams and fears
A documentary by Mai Masri (be sure to check out our podcast episode with the director) shot in two refugee camps & first released in 2001. It explores the enduring friendship that evolves between two Palestinian girls in refugee camps — one in Beirut, the other in Bethlehem. Available to watch on Netflix.
The land speaks arabic
This film brings together original source documents, Zionist leaders' quotations, rare archival footage, testimonies of witnesses and interviews with historians to illustrate that the expulsion of the indigenous Arab population from Palestine was far from an accidental result of the 1948 war (via Center for Palestine Studies). Free to watch on Youtube.
In search of palestine
For Edward Said, the return to his homeland amounted to a painful inquiry into his past. This program captures the interconnection between Said's personal recollections and the shared memory of the Palestinian people. Far from ignoring the contemporary realities of the Middle East, Said's perspective relates the ruins of history to the complacent and destructive policies of present-day governments, and delivers a powerful articulation of the weaknesses of the Oslo accords (via Center for Palestine Studies).
Available on Vimeo.
The dupes
A Syrian drama film directed by Egyptian director Tewfik Saleh. Based on Ghassan Kanafani’s 1963 novel Men in the Sun, the film follows three Palestinian refugees as they make their way, concealed in the steel tank of a truck, from Palestine through Iraq to Kuwait.
According to the Palestine Film Institute, it was the first Arab film to address the Palestine question.
the time that remains
A semi-biographical story by Elia Suleiman that recounts the creation of the Israeli state from 1948 to the present day, with a comedic lens.
This film comes as the third and final installment of Suleiman’s trilogy of films about the Israeli State and Palestinian people (following Chronicle of a Disappearance and Divine Intervention). Watch on Amazon.
3000 nights
Follows a young Palestinian schoolteacher who, wrongly accused, is incarcerated in a high-security Israeli prison. She soon discovers she is pregnant and gives birth to a son while still imprisoned. Based on true events.
Available on Netflix
They Do Not Exist
A documentary short film by Mustafa Abu Ali that captures conditions in Lebanon’s refugee camps, the impact of Israeli attacks and guerrillas as they train. This film is seen as a ‘cornerstone in the development of Palestinian cinema’.
Watch on YouTube.
It must be heaven
A comedy-drama film written and directed by Elia Suleiman, who also stars as the mute main character. Suleiman’s character escapes Palestine for a fresh beginning, but as he travels to Paris and New York he notices unexpected parallels between these new places and his homeland. Watch on Amazon Prime.
Alam
Directed by Firas Khoury, Alam (meaning ‘flag’ in Arabic'), follows Tamer, a Palestinian teenager, as he leads a typical life alongside his friends. The arrival of ‘beautiful Maysaa’ sweeps Tamer off his feet and he agrees to take part in a mysterious and life-changing ‘Alam’ operation.
Pomegranates and myrrh
A love story between two Christian Arabs set in present-day Ramallah. After her husband’s olive farm is confiscated and he is arrested, Kamar decides to join a folk dance group where she begins to fall for Kais, the group’s modernist choreographer. Available on Netflix.
Children of Shatila
Fifty years after their grandparents' exile from Palestine, two streetwise kids living in Beirut's Shatila refugee camp document stories of loss and war (Via Netflix).
Watch on Netflix.
Farha
After persuading her father to continue her education in the city, a Palestinian girl's dream is shattered by the harrowing developments of the Nakba (Via Netflix).
Watch on Netflix.
slingshot hip hop
The voice of a new generation rocks and rhymes as Palestinian rappers form alternative voices of resistance within the Israeli-Palestinian struggle (via IMDB).
200 meters
A Palestinian father trapped on the other side of the separation wall is trying to reach the hospital for his son (via IMDB).
Tantura
In the war of 1948 hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated. Israelis call it 'The War of Independence. Palestinians call it 'Nakba"'. The film examines one village- Tantura and why "Nakba" is taboo in Israeli society (via IMDB).
5 broken cameras
A deeply personal, first-hand account of life and non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village surrounded by Israeli settlements. Shot by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, Gibreel, the film was co-directed by Burnat and Guy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker. Structured in chapters around the destruction of each one of Burnat’s cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of village upheaval (via Human Rights Watch).
The tower
An emotional fiction film based on true stories of Palestinian refugees living in camps in Lebanon, inspired by real-life interviews with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
Wardi, an eleven-year-old Palestinian girl, lives with her whole family in the refugee camp where she was born. She learns about her family’s history through stories told to her by three earlier generations of refugees (via MAD Distribution).
bonbone
With her husband detained in an Israeli prison, a Palestinian woman crafts a daring plan to turn their no-contact encounter into a sweet exchange (via Netflix).
If you’re looking for more Palestinian films, the Palestine Film Institute is a great resource. And if you’ve got recommendations for films or filmmakers that you think we should add to our list, comment below.