Palestine

  • Mustafa Abu Ali – They Do Not Exist (1974)

    1971-1980DocumentaryMustafa Abu AliPalestinePolitics
    They Do Not Exist (1974)
    They Do Not Exist (1974)

    Shooting under extraordinary conditions, the director, who worked with Godard on his Ici et Ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere) – this film was shot on the same 16mm camera – and founded the PLO’s film division, covers conditions in Lebanon’s refugee camps, the effects of Israeli bombardments, and the lives of guerrillas in training camps. They Do Not Exist is a stylistically unique work which explodes at the intersection between the political and the aesthetic.Read More »

  • Khadijeh Habashneh Abu Ali – Atfal Walakin AKA Children Nevertheless AKA Children Without Childhood (1979)

    1971-1980DocumentaryKhadijeh Habashneh Abu AliPalestineShort Film
    Atfal Walakin (1979)1

    Produced by the Palestinian Cinema Institute and the General Union of Palestinian Women

    On August 12, 1976, during the civil war in Lebanon, the Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp was attacked by Phalangists.

    2,000 people are massacred. A house welcomes orphans. The camera accompanies them in their everyday life, in their suffering, in the precariousness of the refugee camps in neighboring countries and in Palestine under Israeli occupation.Read More »

  • Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi – Five Broken Cameras (2011)

    Emad Burnat2011-2020DocumentaryGuy DavidiPalestinePolitics
    Five Broken Cameras (2011)
    Five Broken Cameras (2011)

    Quote:
    Five broken cameras—and each one has a powerful tale to tell. Embedded in the bullet-ridden remains of digital technology is the story of Emad Burnat, a farmer from the Palestinian village of Bil’in, which famously chose nonviolent resistance when the Israeli army encroached upon its land to make room for Jewish colonists. Emad buys his first camera in 2005 to document the birth of his fourth son, Gibreel. Over the course of the film, he becomes the peaceful archivist of an escalating struggle as olive trees are bulldozed, lives are lost, and a wall is built to segregate burgeoning Israeli settlements.Read More »

  • Lina Soualem – Bye Bye Tiberias AKA Bye Bye Tibériade (2023)

    2021-2030DocumentaryLina SoualemPalestine
    Bye Bye Tiberias (2023)
    Bye Bye Tiberias (2023)

    Thirty years ago, Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass left her village in Galilee to follow her dreams of acting in France. In this poignant portrait, both deeply personal and inescapably political, filmmaker Lina Soualem — who is also Abbas’ daughter — traces the story of her mother, her mother’s mother, and their extended family, all of whose lives have been defined by separation, exile, and displacement. Interwoven with nostalgic home video recordings and rich archival footage of Palestinian life through the decades, Bye Bye Tiberias is a moving memoir about the burden of leaving, the endurance of memory, and the determination to forge one’s own destinies and identities.Read More »

  • Darin J. Sallam – Farha (2021)

    2021-2030Darin J. SallamDramaPalestine
    Farha (2021)
    Farha (2021)

    Quote:
    A 14-year-old girl in 1948 Palestine watches from a locked pantry as catastrophe consumes her home, in this bold debut from Darin J. Sallam.Read More »

  • Michel Khleifi – Hikayatul jawahiri thalath AKA The Tale of the Three Lost Jewels (1995)

    Michel Khleifi1991-2000ArthouseDramaPalestine
    Hikayatul jawahiri thalath (1995)
    Hikayatul jawahiri thalath (1995)

    A Palestinian boy becomes entranced with a beautiful Gypsy girl and a fairy tale world she weaves amidst conflict in Gaza. The children explore nature, mysticism and what their future holds, while learning to live with the surrounding brutality c. 1990. Yusef’s family scrapes by in a seaside camp while his father’s in prison and his heavily-armed brother’s on the run, parrying with Israeli troops. Salah, Yusef’s schoolmate from a well-off Arab family strives faithfully to assist them, while Yusef helps an elderly, blind neighbor escape from his lonely abandonment into the North American dreamworld he’s waited so long for.Read More »

  • Mai Masri – Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001)

    2001-2010DocumentaryMai MasriPalestineWar
    Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001)
    Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001)

    Mona and Manar are two Palestinian girls growing up in refugee camps in Beirut and Bethlehem. Despite the overwhelming barriers that separate them, the girls form a close friendship through letters and a dramatic reunion across the Lebanese border with Palestine. Shot during the liberation of south Lebanon from Israeli occupation and the beginning of the Palestinian intifada, FRONTIERS OF DREAMS AND FEARS articulates the dreams and hopes of a generation of young Palestinians living in exile.Read More »

  • Arab Nasser & Tarzan Nasser – Dégradé (2015)

    Arab Nasser2011-2020DramaPalestineTarzan Nasser
    Dégradé (2015)
    Dégradé (2015)

    In Gaza, two hairdressers and ten customers of various ages and backgrounds spend the day trapped in a beauty salon while Hamas police fight a gang in the street.Read More »

  • Michel Khleifi – Urs al-jalil AKA Wedding in Galilee (1987)

    1981-1990DramaMichel KhleifiPalestine
    Urs al jalil (1987)
    Urs al jalil (1987)

    A Palestinian seeks Israeli permission to waive curfew to give his son a fine wedding. The military governor’s condition is that he and his officers attend. The groom berates his father for agreeing. Women ritually prepare the bride; men prepare the groom. Guests gather. The Arab youths plot violence. One Israeli officer swoons in the heat and Arab women take her into the cool house. A thoroughbred gets loose and runs to a mined field; soldiers and Arabs must cooperate to rescue it. As darkness falls, tensions between army and villagers rise, and the groom’s wedding-night anger and impotence threaten family dignity and honor. Can cool heads prevail?Read More »

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