Palestine 36

Ingeniously filmed historical drama by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir (Wajib, When I Saw You) on the uprising by Arab freedom fighters (1936-1939) against the colonial British Mandate for Palestine, starring Jeremy Irons and Hiam Abbas. Palestinian submission for the Oscars. In 1936, the British Empire strengthened its hold on turbulent Palestine, which was caught up in an anticolonial struggle.

Yusuf is caught between his village and his work in Jerusalem, where Palestinian journalists are striving to report on the situation in the face of censorship and increasing repression. Yusuf’s friend Khalid is becoming radicalised and joins the growing resistance to the British Mandate, put in place following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.