Palestinian Realities 2: West Bank & Diaspora

Concrete Sky (2025)

Dirs. Basel Nasr, Ahmad Saleh, Almasna / 2025 / Animated / 6m

The daily journey the balloon girl takes, witnessing the effects of the apartheid wall, as it separates children from their schools, families from each other and people from their land.

Cache-Cache (2012)

Dir. Dia’ Azzeh / 2012 / Animated / 4m

An animator retraces his memories of childhood through illustration. He recalls a familial hero, who he once longed to emulate.

Memory of the Land (2017)

Dir. Samira Badran / 2017 / Animated / 13m

Palestine. A body is trapped at a checkpoint; an essential mechanism of the Israeli occupation. The body is pierced by structural and physical violence, which is aggressive and arbitrary and prevents and attacks its free movement and existence. 

Homeland (2023)

Dir. Faiza Afifi / 2023 / Animated / 2m

In a land we call home, a fish navigates the confines of a small glass tank, its eyes
fixated on landscapes in the last lines in the glass. Trying to reach beyond, she swims
slowly and then in a frenzy towards the illusion of open spaces, only to collide with the
transparent barrier. As we venture through the fish´s perspective, the land undergoes
surreal events until it becomes an abstracted from within.
In this homeland, a fish imprisoned in a tank becomes a journey where the land
dissolves, carrying within it the countless roots over centuries, undergoing cycles of
death and rebirth in new forms.

Mariam (2020)

Dir. Dana Durr / 2020 / Animated / 5m

An animated short follows a girls journey to find tradition and knowledge from her culture and heritage after losing her beloved sanctuary. As she witnesses the destruction of a beloved tree, a broad and unbreakable bond is illustrated through motifs of olive and cypress trees embroidered in this heartfelt film about the unity of people and their land

Checkpoint (2021)

Dir. Jana Kattan / 2021 / Animated / 6m

Set in the occupied territory of modern-day Palestine known as the West Bank, Checkpoint follows 11 year old Leila, who wakes up before dawn every morning to try to get to school on time.  Her obstacle is the military occupation of her environment- specifically, the notorious checkpoint she must cross everyday to get to her school. Despite Leila’s best efforts to prepare, she cannot control the seemingly endless queue, or the strong possibility she will be randomly denied access to the other side.

Hide and Seek (2024)

Dir. Rami Abass / 2024 / Animated / 7m

It is a story of a child and his fish set on their journey into the unknown, following the raid on the child's town during the ongoing war ravaging his country. The film captures the steps of this journey and its transformations, concluding as the child reaches one of the coasts.