The Immortal Sergeant (2014)

Documentary, 1h 15m

By day, director Ziad Kalthoum is a sergeant in the Syrian army, leading the former Bassel Al-Assad cinema in Damascus as a military base. Every day after work, he returns to his old life, working on the film set of his friend, Mohammad Malas. Both lives are dictated by bombings and war. Accompanied by his handheld camera, Kalthoum captures what remains of normality.

Writer & Director: Ziad Kalthoum

Editing: Firas Jawad

Producers: Firas Jawad, Marwan Ziadeh

Sound: Nadime Mishlawi

Ayouni (2020)

Documentary, 1h 15m

Noura and Machi search for answers about their loved ones – Bassel Safadi and Paolo Dall’Oglio, who are among the over 100,000 forcibly disappeared in Syria. Faced with the limbo of an overwhelming absence of information, hope is the only thing they have to hold on to. ‘Ayouni’ is a deeply resonant Arabic term of endearment - meaning ‘my eyes’ and understood as ‘my love’. Filmed over 6 years and across multiple countries in search of answers, Ayouni is an attempt to give numbers faces, to give silence a voice, and to make the invisible undeniably visible.

Director: Yasmin Fedda

Producers: Hugh Hartford & Elhum Shakerifar

Filmed by: Yasmin Fedda & Hugh Hartford

Additional Footage: Bassel Safari Khartabil, Orwa Mokdad, Dana Trometer, Anwar Omar and many anonymous camera operators

Editors: Tom Erns & Greg Pittard

On Sunday 8th December, 2024, 54 years of Assad dynasty rule came to an end. Decades of fear and oppression lifted. Across the country, thousands of political prisoners of conscience who had been detained in Assad’s notorious prisons were released. Families of the over 130,000 forcibly disappeared rushed to find their loved ones. Some were reunited in emotional scenes, yet many - most - are still looking for answers. At the time of writing, so much remains unknown, and vital efforts for justice and accountability are already being pursued. This is a very fragile moment, but I hold onto the hope that Syrians are feeling for a brighter future, and  it gives me the hope that the liberation of Palestine is within our reach. I can imagine that now more than ever.

Ayouni follows Noura and Machi search for answers about their loved ones – Palestinian Syrian Bassel Safadi and Italian Paolo Dall’Oglio, who were among over 130,000 forcibly disappeared in Syria. Faced with the limbo of an overwhelming absence of information, hope is the only thing their families have to hold on to. ‘Ayouni’ is a deeply resonant Arabic term of endearment - meaning ‘my eyes’ and understood as ‘my love’. Filmed over 6 years and across multiple countries in search of answers, Ayouni is an attempt to give numbers faces, to give silence a voice, and to make the invisible undeniably visible.

Bassel Safadi and Paolo Dall’Oglio were both revolutionaries, they held a dream and fought for freedom and democracy. They wanted an end to authoritarianism, and they wanted a peaceful transition of power for a diverse Syria. Their fates still remain unknown.  

Ayouni was first released in 2020; in order to contribute to the work of campaigns such as The Syria Campaign in seeking justice and accountability for those forcibly disappeared, we ensured that it was available in all the languages spoken by countries with key decision making powers in the UN Security Council. At the time, and following advice from our comrades, we geo-blocked access to the film in Syria so as to protect families whose stories appear in the film. In December 2024 we removed the geo-block so that the film can be seen in Syria too and re-release Ayouni to honour Bassel and Paolo, as well as the thousands of people who were forcibly disappeared in Syria under tyranny.

To see so many detainees released on the 8th December brought so much happiness and promise. At the same time, mass graves are being uncovered across the country and thousands of families are still searching for answers about their loved ones' fates. Many organizations including The Syria Campaign and NoPhotoZone (established by Noura Ghazi) are doing crucial work now to support detainees and their families in their search for answers. Alongside the support of the new and nascent Syrian government, they need the support of the international community and for bodies such as the International Criminal Court to meaningfully engage with the ongoing question marks around those forcibly disappeared and still missing, so that transitional justice can be achieved.

- Yasmin Fedda, Director

Roshmia (2015)

Documentary, 1h 10m

An elderly Palestinian refugee couple fights to protect their home and way of life in Roshmia: the last natural valley in Haifa. Yousef and his wife Amna have lived in their dwelling since 1956 in what seems to be a life of serenity; far away from the noise of modern living. Life is peaceful in Roshmia until the Israeli authorities propose a new road project that threatens to expel them from their home once again.

Director: Salim Abu Jabal

In Search of Palestine: Edward Said’s Return Home (1998)

Documentary, 50m

For Palestinian expatriate 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. His intellectual legacy provides valuable insight into the circumstances of the second intifada, as well as the faint steps toward peace that followed.

Director: Charles Bruce

Production: BBC

Fadia’s Tree (2022)

Documentary, 82m

While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. She challenges Sarah, the Director, to find an ancient mulberry tree that stands as witness to her family's existence - with only inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon as her guides. Along the way, Sarah meets with ornithologists whose observations on the homing instincts of the birds reveal the unresolved problems of the region. This story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land and a fragmented people adopts a birds' eye perspective to reflect on freedom of movement, exile and the hope of return.

Director: Sarah Beddington

Producer: Susan Simnett

Editor: Ariadna Fatjó Vilas

Music: Muqata’a

Pasolini Pa* Palestine (2005)

Experimental, 51m

In 1963 Pier Paolo Pasolini, poet and filmmaker, ex-catholic and communist, went looking for signs of the divine in the villages, churches, and deserts of Palestine. He was at the same time searching the faces of its inhabitants for traces of the rustic piety that produced the Christian revolution, all the while recording his travels in a documentary of locations and scenarios for his planned film on the life of Jesus. Having found too few places untouched by the violence of modernity, Pasolini instead shot his Gospel According to Matthew in southern Italy.
​
In a stuttering embrace of the holy fatherland and father Pasolini himself, Pasolini Pa* Palestine remakes Pasolini’s documentary, translating his script into Arabic and taking his film survey as a map for exploring contemporary Palestine. Reactivating Pasolini’s pursuit of the ‘archaic’ and the ‘sub-proletarian’ in a landscape cluttered with the markers of modern/colonial war and occupation, the video weaves together myth and document, the theological and the political, the messianic and the everyday.
​
At once an exploration of artistic repetition and reenactment, and the scenario of production that lies at the margins of epic narrative, Pasolini Pa* Palestine is also a discerning investigation of the past as a motivating political force, revolutionary and otherwise, in the wreckage of the modern.

Director: Ayreen Anastas

---

From: Ayreen Anastas
Sent: Dec 2, 2003 4:22 PM
To: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Subject: Sopraluoghi in Palestina per il film “Vangelo Secondo Matteo”
​
Dear Pier Paolo,
​
I am writing to ask your permission to repeat your seeking in Palestine film 40 years ago in the film: Sopraluoghi in Palestina per il film ‘Vangelo Secondo Matteo’.*
​
In this repetition, I would like to find in that landscape what you have not found in your film. Your refusal of the Palestinian landscape makes me sad: a refusal that is a negation and affirmation at the same time: it is a negation because you did not execute ‘The Gospel According to Matthew’ in Palestine, and an affirmation in the sense of the necessity of a repetition of this venture, trip, seeking etc… only in that gap of not finding the location in Palestine in your film 40 years ago, I can start seeking them in the new film today.
​
So it is not a real sadness if I say: I am sad that you did not decide for this landscape and for locations there. It is rather a symbolic sadness, that will help me find an unnamable (an unknown that actually motivates the project) in that landscape I grew up in. It is a sadness of love, a double love, for you as a filmmaker and for this landscape.
(…)
​
* Seeking Locations in Palestine for ‘The Gospel According to Matthew'”

Advocate (2019)

Documentary, 1h 54m

Lea Tsemel defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from nonviolent demonstrators to armed militants. As a Jewish-Israeli lawyer who has represented political prisoners for five decades, Tsemel, in her tireless quest for justice, pushes the praxis of a human rights defender to its limits. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she's more than an attorney, she’s an ally.

Advocate follows Tsemel’s caseload in real time, including the high-profile trial of 13-year-old Ahmad Manasra — her youngest client to date — while also revisiting her landmark cases and reflecting on the political significance of her work and the personal price one pays for taking on the role of “devil’s advocate.”

Directors:

Rachel Leah Jones & Philippe Bellaiche

Location Scouting in Palestine (1965)

Documentary, 54m

In 1963, accompanied by a newsreel photographer and a Catholic priest, Piero Paolo Pasolini traveled to Palestine to investigate the possibility of filming his biblical epic The Gospel According to Matthew in its approximate historical locations. Edited by The Gospel‘s producer for potential funders and distributors, Location Scouting in Palestine features semi-improvised commentary from Pasolini as its only soundtrack. As we travel from village to village, we listen to Pasolini’s idiosyncratic musings on the teachings of Christ and witness his increasing disappointment with the people and landscapes he sees before him.

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Producers: Alfredo Bini

Cinematography: Otello Martelli, Aldo Pinelli

The Journey of the Others (2019)

Documentary, 74m

In the hot summer of northern Palestine, in the main hall of the Jenin Freedom Theater, a group of brave actors rehearse a play, risking their lives to fulfill their dream of premiering it in New York.

Six years have passed since the theater's founder, Juliano Mer Khamis, was brutally murdered, but his death only fanned the flame that ignited the Freedom Theater: art as the heart of peaceful cultural resistance.

Summer is coming to an end, but the heat seems to increase with the nervousness that runs through every corner of the theater. The cast is just a few days away from trying to travel to New York. Will they make it?

Director: Jaime Villareal

Producers: Benjamín Vicuña, Paola Facuse, Maurice Khamis, Javiera Khamis, Khalid Massou, Mohammed Youseff

Featuring: Zoe Lafferty, Mohammed Yousef, Ahmed Tobasi, Motaz Malhees

Foragers (2022)

Documentary, 65m

Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants.

For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

Directed and Produced by: Jumana Manna

Camera: Marte Vold, Ashraf Dowani, Yaniv Linton

Editors: Jumana Manna, Katrin Ebersohn

Featuring: Aziza Manna, Adel Manna, Zeidan Hajib, Majmoud Shawahde, Ihab Salameh, Najma Hamdan, Samir Na’amneh

Leila and the Wolves (1984)

Drama, 1h 30m

Refusing colonial and masculine readings of the past, Leila, a Lebanese student, travels through time and space, reflecting on 80 years of Middle Eastern history. From the British Mandate to the Lebanese Civil War, she reveals the hidden role of women, and discovers that the Patriarchy also oppresses men.

Shot over seven years, and in often treacherous conditions, Heiny Srour’s film is a masterpiece of filmmaking, mixing together archival footage, fairy-tale storytelling, aesthetically bold imagery, and dramatizations of situations faced by women in Lebanon and Palestine.

Writer & Director: Heiny Srour

Directors of Photography: Curtis Clark, Charlet Recors

Editor: Eva Houdova

Starring: Nabila Zeitouni, Rafic Ali Ahmed, Emilia Fouad, Ferial Abillamah

Rachel (2009)

Documentary, 1h 40m

An insightful and provocative exploration into the complexities of political solidarity, Rachel is the story of Rachel Corrie, a 22-year-old American member of the International Solidarity Movement, who was killed while trying to prevent an Israeli army bulldozer from destroying Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip in 2003. Director Simone Bitton aligns her filmmaking methodology with the ISM's guidelines to state only objective and concrete details without placing judgment. Balancing interviews with the Israeli Defense Force's current and former personnel and the participants and leaders in the ISM, Bitton examines the circumstances surrounding the unresolved case of Corrie's death.

Director: Simone Bitton

Cinematography: Jacques Bouquin

Editors: Jean-Michel Perez & Catherine Poitevin

Goal Dreams (2006)

Documentary, 86m

The Palestinian national soccer team consists of players of all different nationalities. There are a few from Chile, one from the United States, from Lebanon, and some from Gaza. Their coach is the Austrian Alfred Riedl. It is his demanding task to prepare the team in a training camp in the Egyptian city of Ismaïlia for the international match against Uzbekistan, which should pave the way to the World Cup. The film follows the team in the weeks leading up to this key game.

There are many problems along the way. In particular, it is almost impossible for the players from Gaza to travel. Despite an official document that permits them to travel to Egypt, they have to wait for days before being allowed to cross the border. Meanwhile, tensions mount in the training camp. There is a confusion of tongues, as everyone is speaking a different language and the interpreters are not all that competent. It also proves difficult to adapt the different playing styles to one another. The training seems doomed to fail, but the players keep up the morale. After all, this team is more than just a soccer team: it is one of the few ways for the Palestinian people to promote their national identity and pride.

Directors: Maya Sanbar & Jeffrey Saunders

Cinematography: Carlos Gomez

Editors: Richard Lowe & Matyas Veress

Curfew (1993)

Drama, 72m

Curfew is the story of a Palestinian family living in a refugee camp in the year 1993. At the start of the film, the Israeli army announces a curfew which will last until further notice. Abu Raji’s family has just received a letter from one son studying in Germany when they are interrupted by the news. Streets empty, doors shut, and stores close. But even in such strange times, family drama continues just like always. The story captures 24 hours within the life of one household, representing the drama of a people that has lasted for decades.  

The debut feature by director Rashid Masharawi, Curfew is also the first feature film by a director from Gaza. It premiered at the 17th Cairo International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Golden Pyramid for Best Film.

Writer & Director: Rashid Masharawi

Executive Producer : Hany Abu-Assad

Director of Photography: Klaus Juliusburger

Editor: Hadara Oren

Set & Art Director: Sharif Waked

Director Assistants: Anwar Hassan & Vidi Bilu

Camera Assistant: Ehab Assal

Starring:

Salim Daw

Areen Omari

Na’ila Zayaad

Mahmoud Qadah

Younis Younis

Assem Zoabi

Lotof Nweser

Salwa Naqara Haddad

Resistance — Why (1971)

Documentary, 58m

In 1970, at the initiative of Soraya Antonius (Fifth of June Society), Christian Ghazi and Noureddine Chatti met with a number of Arab political figures, in particular Palestinians residing in Lebanon.

In the documentary produced, Ghassan Kanafani, Sadiq Jalal El-Azm, Nabil Shaath and others share their vision of the Palestinian revolution, tracing its history back to the early 20th century. These testimonies describe the strikes and popular protests that took place in Palestine under the Ottoman occupation, followed by British colonization and the settlement of the Jewish state in 1948. They enumerate the objectives of the struggle, emphasizing the necessity for a free and democratic Palestine, defended through armed or non-armed struggle by all its citizens, men and women of various affiliations.

Director: Christian Ghazi

Scenario: Soraya Antonius

Music: Matar Mohammad

Camera: Christian Ghazi & Noureddit Chatti

Sound: Noureddin Chatti

Editor: Christian Ghazi

Printing and Processing: Baalbeck Studios S.A.L.

Produced by: Fifth of June Society

Restored by: Nadi Lekol Nas & Arsenal-Berlin

Canticle of the Stones (1990)

Drama, 1h 40m

In his second feature, director Michel Khleifi tells the story of two Palestinian lovers, now in their forties. Two decades after being forced apart by the 1967 war, they are reunited in Jerusalem, in the midst of the Intifada. Lyrically blending fact and fiction, Canticle of the Stones juxtaposes the nostalgic dialogue of the long-lost lovers with verité documentation of the popular struggle unfolding on the streets of Palestine. Against a backdrop of resistance and repression, they fall in love again.

Writer & Director: Michel Khleifi

Editor: Moufida Tlatli

Cinematography: Raymond Fromont

Original Music: Jean-Marie Senia

Starring: Bushra Karaman, Makhram Khoury

Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, 1990

“A very powerful and unapologetically partisan document.”

— The Philadelphia Inquirer

Gaza (2019)

Documentary, 1h 32m

Facing the serene Mediterranean Sea, 17-year-old Karma Khaial stands at the water's edge and senses freedom. But in Gaza, the sea is yet another wall restricting the lives and dreams of its inhabitants.

Premiering at Sundance in 2019, Gaza was selected as the Irish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Directors: Garry Keane & Andrew McConnell

Editor: Mick Mahon

Location Management: Fady Hannona

Shorts 7

Night (2021)

Animation, 16m

The dust of war keeps the eyes sleepless. Night brings peace and sleep to all the people in the broken town. Only the eyes of the mother of the missing child stay resilient. Night has to trick her into sleeping to save her soul.

Director: Ahmad Saleh

Drawing for Better Dreams (2015)

Animation, 4m

By using images drawn by Palestinian children between the ages of 9 and 12, ‘Drawing for Better Dreams’ takes us to the Occupied Territories and into the minds of the kids who live there under siege. By animating the simple crayon drawings, this moving film conjures up the struggles faced by Palestinian children on a daily basis, and demonstrates the power of – and need for – allowing young people to dream. 

Directors: May Odeh & Dia' Azzeh

Fatenah (2009)

Animation, 20m

A Palestinian woman’s attempt to seek medical attention while living in Gaza.

Director: Ahmad Habash

The Apollo of Gaza (2018)

Documentary, 78m

Co-produced by Akka Films and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), The Apollo of Gaza, directed by Swiss filmmaker Nicolas Wadimoff, tries to uncover the secrets behind this stunning archaeological discovery. Filmed in Gaza and Jerusalem, the film plays out like a mystery – one full of unexpected plot twists, as Wadimoff tracks down those who saw the priceless statue or who have heard stories about it. Is it the work of forgers, or a gift from the gods to Palestinians desperately in need of hope? There are a lot of unknowns, but one thing is sure: the Apollo of Gaza soon becomes an object of speculation and greed, its very existence feeding the wildest rumours, and blurring the line between truth and lie, myth and reality.

Beyond the local political rivalries and international concerns, The Apollo of Gaza is an engaging reflection on the passage of time and the cycles of history. It’s a history that has seen the birth, growth, and death of great civilizations, in a part of the world marked by the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where the besieged Gaza strip continues to pay a heavy price.

Director: Nicolas Wadimoff

Flying Paper (2013)

Documentary, 52m

Flying Paper is the uplifting story of Palestinian children in Gaza on a quest to shatter the Guinness World Record for the most kites ever flown. It showcases the creative resilience of these children making and flying kites despite the odds. The film has been co-produced with young Palestinians in Gaza trained by the filmmakers through a youth media program called Voices Beyond Walls.

While the record-breaking event is what drives the film’s narrative arc, it is the everyday stories of the young kite makers that will touch audiences through their humor and playful spirit. The film seeks to humanize the conflict through a touching cinematic rendering of the fascinating kite culture among children as a form of creative resistance in Gaza. Film website: FlyingPaper.org

Directors: Nitin Sawhney and Roger Hill