Film
Palestine in Cinema
Elia Suleiman, Paradise Now, and occupying cinema
One of my favorite films, Spirit of the Beehive (1973) by Victor Erice, criticized the Fascist Franco regime in Spain in the form of a meditative and poetic piece about the loss of childhood innocence.
Another favorite of mine, The Extras (1993) by Nabil Maleh, revealed a tragicomedy life under an Assad regime for two star-crossed lovers, told entirely in one location.
No matter the regime, the one area they can never occupy or oppress is cinema. So it’s only natural that Palestinian filmmakers took to the silver screen to express the absurdity, humor, and tragedy present in daily Palestinian life.
Just the mentioning of Palestine in the West is taboo: lobbying from the pro-Israeli and pro-Zionist groups have made it so that speaking in support of Palestine somehow makes you anti-Semitic. It has become so ingrained in our society that Arab countries, and Palestine in particular, are terrorists with no political motivation other than the destruction of Israel. I don’t claim to be an expert on the occupation of Palestine, but I at least have the common sense to call what’s happening to the populace there for what it is: apartheid.
This is a list of the films I’ve seen about Palestine by Palestinians. By no means a comprehensive list on the total experience of living under the occupation or as a Palestinian in general, these films still present a viewpoint that is either ignored, underrepresented, and/or simplified in Western media.
PARADISE NOW (2005), dir. Hany Abu-Assad
One of the most popular films to have come out of Palestine, Paradise Now depicts two men recruited to become suicide bombers. It is common to hear about the struggles that Israelis go through — their fears, their livelihood. But this is the first film I had seen that humanized the Palestinian struggle from a strictly Palestinian point of view.
The Academy had a difficult time nominating this movie for Best Foreign Film as that would mean acknowledging Palestine as a country.
Paradise Now is available to rent on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and AppleTV.
DIVINE INTERVENTION (2002), dir. Elia Suleiman
Elia Suleiman approaches the occupation differently: through absurd comedy but with just as much heart as his contemporaries. His film Divine Intervention hops from one episode to the next, featuring the power of Palestinian resistance in the face of all odds and even a Palestinian Wonder Woman.
Divine Intervention is available for streaming on Kanopy.
5 BROKEN CAMERAS (2011), dir. Eman Burnat
A documentary by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, this film follows his journey day-to-day while living under occupation in the West Bank. He purchased a camera to chronicle the birth of his youngest son but he soon captures the protests in Bil’in.
An Israeli co-production, it incited much anger and resentment from Israelis and Palestinians alike. The former for slander and the latter for collaboration with an Israeli. But the raw power of the documentary cannot be denied as it reveals a first-hand account of life under occupation, clearly delineating the power imbalance between Israel and Palestine.
5 Broken Cameras is free to stream on Tubi.
I truly believe that cinema is the gateway to the heart and that the cultural zeitgeist of any society can be better understood through this medium. It invokes imagery, sounds, memories, smells, times past and times yet to be in the span of a couple of hours. If you want to know more about Palestine, I won’t discourage you from reading the literature, articles, or news clips out there, but to get a sense of the emotion of Palestinian life, like any other country, watch their films.
I’m going to update this list more and more as I delve deeper into Palestinian cinema. These are the only films I’ve seen of theirs(aside from a few shorts), but they still represent the creativity, vibrancy, and reality that often happens in Palestinian life. There are more complex films I’m sure, but these ones in particular give you a perspective not normally shown or even tolerated in Western media, especially the U.S.
If you know of any Palestinian films I should put on my watchlist, please let me know!
