Palestinian Film

On their journey home, a Palestinian boy and his father are beset by the tensions of a politically charged and militarized reality ; an atmosphere that serves as a foil to the struggles of a father bringing up his son.

Intent on making a film, a group of resourceful young boys don't let limited resources stand in their way. They decide to go where the cameras are, even if that means the middle of the Gaza Strip.

Mays is 22 years old, lives in occupied Palestine and works at the Palestinian Circus School. She is planning a life together with her Swedish boyfriend, Caspar, and she intends to study at the University of Stockholm. However, the road from dream to reality is not easy. Mays is juggling between her family's expectations and Swedish bureaucracy.

Documenting the Art Installation “Going for a Ride?” made by the Palestinian Artist Vera Tamari. The installation is a statement on the aggressive and deliberate crushing of hundreds of privately-owned cars by Israeli tanks in Ramallah and El-Bireh during the military incursions in the two towns in 2002. It focuses on crushed cars because of the powerful meaning cars usually carry: freedom, the open road, travel and movement. In the film, the cars are brought to life again by searching into the memories of those who rode them.

Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. Sansour underlines both the apathy of the western public to media coverage of the conflict and the blurry boundary between that news and entertainment. (Boston Palestinian Film program).

In this short art piece, we see ordinary men and women placing plastic bags over their feet, pulling their clothing up to their knees, clutching their children to their chests, and setting off down a 110 metre tunnel of sewage. Jarrar’s short is shot in one of the few “routes” through which Palestinians try to enter Jerusalem from parts of the West Bank. Shot during the month of Ramadan in a sewage culvert beneath Beit Hanina (a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem divided by walls and checkpoints), Journey 110 is visually haunted by half invisible bodies wading through fetid darkness to reach a distant light at its end.

A six year old Arab-American boy dreams of being the Cowboy instead of the Indian on the playground. Daring to challenge the role his race has determined, Yussef sets out to become a cowboy.

Set in a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem, Lesh Sabreen? tells the story of two young lovers as they navigate dreams and dead-ends in their socially-conservative and Israeli-controlled community. The film illustrates the several layers of authority, from the patriarchal social norms and taboos, to economic pressures and the military occupation, continually facing young Arab Jerusalemites. Sabreen and Ayman dream of being together. But without true economic opportunities, Ayman will never be able to care for Sabreen in a way that her father would approve. And with the power structures conspiring to restrain their dreams, will the young lovers muster the imagination to realize their hopes for the future?

A short film about a group of independent Palestinian filmmakers trying to make a film in the Occupied Territories. They encounter the resistance of the Israeli military authorities and their film project is stopped. Filmed entirely on location in Palestine, December 2001.

A docudrama about a Palestinian filmmaker who is commissioned by an American organization to make a documentary film depicting Jerusalem as a city of peace and coexistence between Jews and Arabs. While making the film, the filmmaker keeps running into situations that are very different from what he is trying to depict. The reality of things on the ground proves to be much stronger than its representation, and it reaches a point where the filmmaker decides that he is unable to finish the film. (Also on Vimeo)

A young Palestinian girl will do whatever it takes to buy a birthday cake. Eleven year-old Mariam begs her mother for the extra money she needs to buy a cake at the local bakery. Her mother begrudgingly relents, but when Mariam arrives at the bakery, she realizes that she still doesn't have enough. Determined to get the cake, she sets out to brave the obstacles and land some cash. What begins as a simple trip to the bakery turns into a journey that depicts not only the subtle tensions of a politically charged environment, but also illustrates the grief that can result from growing up under occupation.

A group of friends from Gaza are trapped in Ramallah without possibilities to visit their hometown, they miss their family, friends and even the stones from Gaza.

A documentary that follows a day in the lives of a group of friends in East Jerusalem. Abu Daoud shares his grief and grievance with his friends. His son is due to appear in Israeli Military Court the following day. Although they come from varying walks of life, these friends share a deep-seated daily struggle against Israel's occupation.

We travel in this documentary between Bethlehem, Haifa and Nazareth to explore the life of Karimeh Abbud - the first female photographer in pre-1948 Palestine. Born in Bethlehem in 1894, Karimeh rapidly rose to prominence in a traditionally male-dominated profession after receiving her first camera as a teenager. Her photos are important historical records of life in Palestine in the early 1900s.

Samia, 71, is still feisty, active and committed. She takes us on a journey in Jerusalem and Jericho as she travels the path of a life marked by her struggle for the right of girls to education and the right of Palestinians to live in Jerusalem. Samia has lived wars, Intifadas and times of unrest and has negotiated power with members of her society and with the Israeli occupation. Yet, she has a place in her heart for the tender memories of love.

In this short film Ihab Jaddallah evokes, not without a certain humor, the stuggle and the resistance of the Palestinians in these times of trouble and chaos through a whimsical self-reference. He thus also denounces the satiric attitude of a journalist, the comportment of the media, spectators and greed for violence. Critical of the instrumentalisation of the war and at the same time manifesting a new generation of Palestinian artists, THE SHOOTER is a meta-film: intelligent, sharp-sighted and skilful. (Paris Cinema)

Soup Over Bethlehem (2006) depicts an ordinary Palestinian family, Sansour's own, around a dinner table on a rooftop overlooking the West Bank city of Bethlehem. What starts as a culinary discussion about the national dish mloukhieh being served from a soup bowl soon evolves into a personal and engaging conversation about politics -- thereby emphasizing the symbiosis of food and politics so indicative of the Palestinian experience.

The Story of Milk and Honey is a short experimental video belonging to a larger project, which includes photographs, drawings and text, detailing an un-named individual's failure to write a love story. Through voiceover narration that weaves together images, letters, and songs, a story of defeat transpires into a journey that explores how we collect and perceive information,understand facts, history, images, and sound and where the individual is to be found in the midst of the material. (source : Arte)

"Salvaged from the ruins of Beirut after 1982, Abu Ali's early film has only recently been made available. Shooting under extraordinary conditions, the director, who worked with Godard on his Ici et Ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere), 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 demonstrates the intersection between the political and the aesthetic."

An official selection at TIFF KIDS film festival Nine year old Aseel peddles cds on the streets of the West Bank by day and uses her imagination, trash and a little help from her magical friends to escape reality and remake the world around her.

Nine year old Nizar is an introverted Palestinian altar boy and a social outcast.

During this years' Easter, Nizar decides to compete with the village children in the traditional "breaking eggs" games. His goal is to collect as many eggs as possible in order to sacrifice them in the village church to his beloved Jesus.

Nizar's egg is "Mashmaa" (a fake egg that is hardened by wax). Only he and Jesus know this fact. The danger of getting caught is very imminent. Nizar manages to collect many eggs and to gain respect from the village children, until finally he is caught. It would be the first time Nizar questions his faith.