Palestinian Film-makers Share Their Favorite Palestinian Films: ‘It Was Like Seeing My Life on Screen’
Global backing for Palestinian causes is increasing, including Hollywood, where numerous of industry professionals have signed a commitment to avoid Israeli cinema organizations considered complicit in the war in the Gaza Strip, and well-known celebrities are backing films that focus on the Palestinian lived reality.
Yet, Palestinian movies continue to face challenges to obtain release and achieve exposure – even after a major Oscars victory recently. To highlight the Palestinian vibrant tradition of cinema, we invited leading Palestinian film-makers and artists to discuss their top Palestinian-made films.
‘By the End, I Was Moved to Tears’: Mo Amer on All That’s Left Of You
Director Cherien Dabis’s film All That’s Left of You, which debuted recently at Sundance, is a unique cinematic work, bold and unforgettable. By portraying the narrative of a single Palestinian family, from its origins in pre-1948 the city of Jaffa through generations of exile, it does not just recount a tale – it celebrates a legacy.
The cinematography are rich and transportive. Every shot feels purposeful, every frame a memory – the citrus orchards of Jaffa, the roads of Nablus, the alienation of displacement. The acting are unforgettable, showcasing Dabis’s extraordinary versatility alongside multiple generations of the Bakris – the family of actors most associated with Palestinian cinema. They are complex, restrained and heartbreakingly authentic.
What’s most impressive is how smoothly the movie shifts between different eras without ever losing its emotional throughline. Every period of the Palestinian story is depicted with remarkable precision, both visually and emotionally. The filmmaking is masterful in that regard, leading you through time with precision and care.
By the end, I was brought to tears. All That’s Left of You isn’t just about the past, it’s about the unseen ways it influences who we are. It’s a movie that stays with you – not because of spectacle, but because of truth.
- Mo Amer is a Palestinian American performer and comedian and the maker of a well-known Netflix series.
‘The Most Wildly Original Palestinian Film Ever Made’: Cherien Dabis on Divine Intervention
A shades-wearing Palestinian female boldly walks through a checkpoint. Israel’s troops watch, guns pointed, confused. Her beauty disarms them and brings the guard tower to collapse. It’s an iconic scene from director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has remained in my mind ever since I initially watched the movie. I was a second-year postgraduate cinema student at a university when it opened in the United States in 2003. I remember being stunned by its power, its defiance, and its sheer boldness.
At a time when most Palestinian film leaned toward the solemn or tragic, Suleiman carved a new path. Through dark humor, deadpan acting, and almost silent observation, he portrayed the surreal ridiculousness of life under military control. Playing the film’s silent protagonist himself, he placed his own perspective at the core of the story. That choice felt radical. His performance was calm and understated, which only heightened the stress all around him.
Divine Intervention is both intimately personal and politically charged. Its imagery is global, yet grounded in the divided existence of Palestinian self. The filmmaker turns separation, displacement and resistance into something approaching poetry. The result is poignant, surreal, sometimes funny and consistently painfully truthful.
There existed nothing remotely like it in Palestinian film at the period. It remains unique. It remains, for me, the most wildly original and imaginative Palestinian film ever made.
- Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian-American director, screenwriter, film producer and actress, whose latest film is a selected entry for the Oscars.
‘Palestine Has Gained a Talent’: Hany Abu Assad on To a Land Unknown
In my view, a great movie needs to do two things. It needs to deliver an journey that’s new, feeling and intelligent. It needs to offer me something I’ve been missing – a perspective that challenges my belief system, a way to consider topics beyond my own life, a view to a distinct era and location. Simply put, I need to feel enriched, emotionally and intellectually.
Second, it needs to impress me with its skill. A talent that is not focused trying to impress but is used to reveal to something deeper.
The movie To a Land Unknown, which was released recently, is precisely this type of film. Created by director Mahdi Fleifel, it is a story about two Palestinian friends searching for better lives as refugees in the country of Greece.
To a Land Unknown made me feel what it’s like to be a at-risk migrant, in a foreign country, where everything works in opposition to your attempts to leave the slum. It demonstrated me that in certain situations, even when conditions outside your influence conspire to hinder you, you yourself can nonetheless turn into your own worst enemy. And its dance between content and cinematic style astonished me in its artistry.
In To a Land Unknown, Palestine has gained a gifted artist that will support its cause without shedding a one ounce of blood.
- Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian Dutch filmmaker, writer and twice Oscar nominee for his acclaimed films.
‘It Shows Israel Views Even Cows as a Threat’: Basel Adra on The Wanted 18
Among my most loved Palestinian films is The Wanted 18. It tells the narrative of Palestinians in Beit Sahour, a village near the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank, during the first intifada of the late 1980s. It documents their attempt to {