#palestinian-documentary

#palestinian-documentary

Taybeh, a small hilltop town in the heart of the West Bank, is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, now feeling under siege and fighting for its existence.

"In 'break bad (freddy flexing)' (2021), a slim man's attempt to exert physical strength instead displays his fragility. A gentleness in his eyes suggests truer strength beneath the performance."

Cut & Paste Pictures is developing a feature-length documentary chronicling the lifelong friendship between Rise Against guitarist Zach Blair and wrestler Hassan 'MVP' Assad, who will also front an unscripted series about life after prison.

Lapid's frenzied and disgusted vision emerges as he follows the fortunes of a young Tel Aviv couple—a jazz pianist known only as Y and a dancer named Yasmine. Their artistic background is overshadowed by their roles as sexy disco clowns at a big outdoor party for the rich and politically connected.

Campaigners believe Qesser Zuhrah was arrested due to an Instagram story that allegedly encouraged people to take direct action, highlighting concerns over freedom of expression.

Macho Dancer was once deemed so controversial that its director had to smuggle it out of the country so it could see the light of day. Set within Manila's infamous red-light district, the film was seen as too risqué and possibly even dangerous due to its honest look at homosexuality, sex work, and drag queens, while also shining a light on government corruption.

On March 30, 1976, six unarmed Palestinians were killed during protests against Israel's confiscation of land, marking a significant event in Palestinian history.

In the film, Bronz's character is commissioned to compose a new national anthem for post-Oct. 7 Israel, and writes a warmongering ballad about destroying Gaza and 'love sanctified in blood.'

Textiles are a window into the communities that created them, with every motif and line signalling a different memory, tradition or identity. Often seen as folk art, these pieces of embroidery and weaving bring together dozens of narrative threads, from Japan to South America. But nowhere is it more fraught with meaning than in Palestine.

There is a scene in "Morgenkreis | Morning Circle" (2025), a 16-mm film by Berlin-based Palestinian artist Basma al-Sharif, that unfolds at the threshold of a daycare center. A young boy clings to his father, his fists locked into the fabric of his coat, his arms wrapped tightly around him. The father gently tries to pry himself free while a daycare worker crouches nearby, attempting to distract the child and coax him inside. It is an ordinary moment, one that anyone who has ever been a child - or cared for one - recognizes instantly, as well as the gut-wrenching feeling it provokes.

Today Americans are getting a taste of what Palestinians have experienced for decades: state terror. The escalation of state violence in the United States has been unprecedented. In the span of three weeks, two people were shot dead in Minneapolis during anti-immigration raids. Both were branded domestic terrorists. Meanwhile last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used five-year-old Liam Ramos as bait to get his asylum-seeking father to come out of their home;

A Chadian chemist and a British activist, both born in Jerusalem, vow to fight for Palestine by any means necessary even if it costs them death. Two men devoted their lives to the Palestinian resistance but paid the ultimate price. Bashir Jibril, born in Jerusalem to a Chadian family, joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. He trained military cadres and took part in the 1970 airliner hijackings, before being killed in a car bomb explosion in Athens in 1978.

The film tells the true story of Hind, who was killed by Israeli forces in 2024 as she and her family tried to evacuate Gaza City, blending recordings of real emergency calls with dramatic re-enactments. It draws on harrowing audio from Hind Rajab's call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, in which rescuers tried to reassure her as she lay trapped in a bullet-ridden car with the bodies of her aunt, uncle and three cousins, who had all been killed by Israeli fire.

The Voice of Hind Rajab has been nominated for an Academy Award for best international feature, a recognition for the Tunisian film that features the voice of a 5-year-old girl whose phone call begging for help was heard across the world before she was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. The film is a mix of a documentary and drama that weaves in the recordings of Hind's phone call along with scripted, dramatized scenes of Palestinian Red Crescent dispatchers as they agonized over trying to save her. It was nominated alongside four other films.

Filmmaker Simplice Ganou, from Burkina Faso, spends his time documenting people and relationships, but when he travels to Winterthur, Switzerland, he faces a new challenge: nobody wants to talk to him.

The moving story of a Tunisian man who refuses to let cancer define his mother's life and turns her treatment into a celebration of love, joy and resilience. When Tunisian TV host Hassen becomes a full-time caregiver for his mother Saliha, dying of lung cancer, their home and hospital visits become the backdrop for an intimate family love story. This observational documentary follows them through birthday celebrations, 4am medication, difficult medical consultations and quiet, emotional moments together.

Upon reaching Cologne, however, it quickly became apparent to the directors that the most fraught and complicated portion of Israa's exodus was just beginning. The journey from Aleppo had almost been as dangerous as it would have been for her family to stay there, but neither artillery shells, overcrowded boats, nor the constant threat of being sent back were as difficult for the girl to survive as the twin pains of exile and assimilation.