Palestinian Film-makers Reveal Their Favorite Palestinian-made Movies: ‘It Was Like Seeing My Life on Screen’

Global backing for Palestine’s rights is increasing, including Hollywood, where numerous of industry professionals have signed a commitment to boycott Israel’s film groups deemed involved in the war in Gaza, and well-known celebrities are supporting movies that focus on the Palestinian people’s experience.

However, Palestinian films continue to face challenges to obtain release and achieve visibility – despite a major Academy Awards win recently. To showcase Palestine’s vibrant heritage of cinema, we invited prominent Palestinian directors and artists to discuss their favorite Palestinian movies.

‘By the End, I Was Moved to Tears’: Mo Amer on All That’s Left Of You

Director Cherien Dabis’s film All That’s Left of You, which debuted recently at the Sundance Film Festival, is a rare film, bold and memorable. By portraying the story of a single Palestinian family, from its origins in pre-1948 the city of Jaffa through generations of exile, it does not just recount a story – it celebrates a legacy.

The visuals are rich and immersive. Every shot feels purposeful, each image a memory – the orange groves of Jaffa, the streets of Nablus, the alienation of displacement. The acting are unforgettable, highlighting Dabis’s remarkable range together with three generations of the Bakri family – the group of actors most associated with Palestinian cinema. They are layered, subtle and deeply authentic.

What’s most impressive is how seamlessly the movie shifts between different eras without ever losing its narrative thread. Each decade of the Palestinian story is brought to life with remarkable detail, both in imagery and in feeling. The filmmaking is masterful in that way, guiding you through time with clarity and care.

By the end, I was moved to tears. All That’s Left of You isn’t just about the past, it’s about the unseen manners it shapes who we are. It’s a movie that stays with you – not because of drama, but because of truth.

• Mo Amer is a Palestinian American actor and comedian and the creator of a well-known streaming show.

‘The Most Wildly Original Palestinian Film Ever Made’: Cherien Dabis on Divine Intervention

A sunglasses-clad Palestinian female defiantly struts through a security post. Israeli troops watch, weapons pointed, confused. Her beauty disarms them and brings the guard tower crashing down. It’s an iconic scene from Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has stayed with me ever since I first saw the movie. I was a second-year graduate film student at a university when it premiered in the US in the early 2000s. I recall being stunned by its power, its resistance, and its sheer audacity.

At a time when most Palestinian film tended to be the serious or tragic, the director created a new path. Through dark humor, deadpan performance, and almost silent observation, he captured the bizarre absurdity of existence under occupation. Portraying the film’s silent main character personally, he centered his own gaze at the heart of the narrative. That choice felt revolutionary. His presence was composed and restrained, which only magnified the tension all around him.

Divine Intervention is both intimately personal and politically charged. Its imagery is global, yet rooted in the fractured reality of Palestinian self. The filmmaker transforms separation, displacement and defiance into something approaching art. The result is poignant, surreal, at times hilarious and consistently deeply truthful.

There existed nothing remotely like it in Palestinian cinema at the time. There still isn’t. It continues to be, for me, the most innovative and imaginative Palestinian-made film ever created.

• Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American filmmaker, writer, producer and actor, whose latest film is an official submission for the Oscars.

‘A Remarkable New Voice’: Hany Abu Assad on To a Land Unknown

For me, a great movie needs to do two aspects. It needs to deliver an experience that’s new, feeling and intelligent. It needs to offer me an element I’ve been missing – a point of view that contradicts my views, a method to consider issues outside my own world, a window to a distinct time and place. In short, I need to feel enriched, emotionally and in mind.

Second, it needs to move me with its skill. A talent that is not focused seeking approval but is employed to open my eyes to something deeper.

The film To a Land Unknown, which was launched recently, is precisely this kind of film. Made by director Mahdi Fleifel, it is a story about a pair of Palestinian companions looking for improved futures as displaced persons in Greece.

To a Land Unknown allowed me to experience what it’s like to be a at-risk refugee, in a strange country, where all factors works against your efforts to leave the ghetto. It demonstrated me that in certain situations, although circumstances outside your influence conspire against you, you personally can nonetheless become your own biggest obstacle. And its dance between story and visual form astonished me in its craft.

In To a Land Unknown, Palestine has gained a gifted artist that will support its mission without shedding a single ounce of violence.

• Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian Dutch filmmaker, screenwriter and two-time Oscar nominee for his celebrated works.

‘Even Livestock Are Seen as a Danger’: Basel Adra on The Wanted 18

Among my most loved Palestinian films is The Wanted 18. It recounts the narrative of Palestinian people in the village of Beit Sahour, a village near Bethlehem in the West Bank, during the initial uprising of the late 1980s. It documents their effort to {