Synopsis:

If These Stones Could Talk is an intergenerational documentary that unfolds in Shefa-Amr, tracing one family’s attempt to return after living in New York City to re-root themselves in a landscape shaped by loss and resilience. Hana comes across her family’s archival tapes in their basement, launching deeper questions into her parents' fractured relationship to their Palestinian homeland, and the histories she has inherited.

The narrative weaves together three timelines and perspectives—Hana, Nassib, and Maha.Past and present echo each other as cameras reverse roles: parents film their daughter, and she films them in return. As Hana and her family tend neglected groves, cultivate ancestral crops, and navigate the challenges of restoration, the landscape emerges not as a backdrop but as a living participant in the narrative. Their efforts to restore and care for the land reveal the contemporary political realities shaping daily life for Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinians in diaspora, and inter-generational conversations about home and belonging.

Director’s profile:

Hana Elias is a Palestinian-American creative nonfiction filmmaker whose practice is rooted in community collaboration and explores themes of home and identity alongside environmental justice. Her recent short documentary, Where the Wind Blows, premiered at DOC NYC and received the Best Short Documentary Award at the 2024 Arab Film and Media Festival. She is currently developing her first feature documentary, If These Stones Could Talk, with support from the Firelight Media Documentary Lab, BRIC Film & TV Lab, the Thessaloniki Film Festival. She is currently a UFO Short Film Lab fellow for 2026. As a journalist, her reporting has appeared in The Nation, +972 Magazine, and 7iber, and she was a 2024 Video Fellow at Democracy Now!

Producer’s profile

Asmahan Bkerat is a Palestinian-Jordanian documentary filmmaker. She started her career as a photographer and social justice advocate. Bkerat’s first short documentary “Badrya'' won the Jury Prize for Best MiniDoc at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. She is currently directing /Producing her first feature-length documentary “Concrete Land” and producing the feature doc “Harvest Moon”, and “If These Stones Could Talk” alongside a few other short doc films. She is an alumna of Sundance, Hot Docs, IDFA, DFI, SDI, The Whickers, The American Film Showcase, Cannes Docs, Dhaka doc lab, DMZ, Doc Edge, AIDC and IMS.