Tawfiq’s Reef chronicles the plight of Palestinian fishermen in Gaza, heavily restricted in the area in which they can fish, often indebted, shot at, harassed or imprisoned by the Israeli Navy on the narrow sliver of fishing waters available to them off the Gaza coastline, making this one of the most dangerous professions in the world.
Set in the al-Mishal Cultural Center in Gaza before it was destroyed by an Israeli air strike on August 9, 2018, A Play Before The Bombs is a story that unfolds over a 4 year period. The film follows Abeer Ahmed, a young woman growing up in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp, the largest refugee camp in Gaza, as she and the other members of her cast and crew prepare to put on a play that focuses on a Palestinian woman’s right to receive inheritance. While the content of the play is tailored towards fostering a cultural discussion among Palestinians, neither the play nor the playhouse can escape the omnipresence of the Israeli siege on Gaza. A siege that shatters literal buildings as well as the hopes and dreams of the performers and community members who take refuge within the walls of al-Mishal in search of artistic fulfillment.
With the most tech startups and venture capital per capita in the world, Israel has long been hailed as The Startup Nation. WIRED’s feature-length documentary looks beyond Tel Aviv’s vibrant, liberal tech epicenter to the wider Holy Land region – the Palestinian territories, where a parallel Startup Nation story is emerging in East Jerusalem, Nazareth, Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank, as well as in the Israeli cybersecurity hub of Be’er Sheva. And we will learn how the fertile innovation ecosystem of Silicon Wadi has evolved as a result of its unique political, geographical and cultural situation and explore the future challenges – and solutions – these nations are facing.
Short film made from photographs taken by anthropologist and photojournalist Rogério Ferrari in Palestinian territories in 2002.
Forty years after leaving his ultra-Orthodox roots, journalist Tuvia Tenenbom returns to Jerusalem's Mea Shearim. With rare access, he uncovers a world that remains a mystery to outsiders.
Since October 2023, Gaza has been sealed from the world-except for one group. International doctors breach the blockade, what they find is not just a humanitarian crisis, but a calculated dismantling of life itself.
The story of how a small group of teenagers created a skate scene from scratch in a place where you can't even buy a skateboard, whilst facing the challenges of living under military occupation.
Shuja’iyah: Land of the Brave represents one filmmaker’s personal reflection on the meaning of “crimes against humanity” in the context of Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ waged in the Gaza Strip in 2014, using footage of her family filmed in the summer of 2013 juxtaposed against audio from the summer of 2014. Assali posed the question, when we say ‘crimes against humanity’, what ‘humanity’ are we talking about?”
A road trip through the hills, valleys and villages of Palestine, following Murad, the cinema-lover who has made it his mission to bring Palestinian cinema to Palestinians in forgotten and marginal communities in the West Bank.
Using only rare archival and newsreel footage, this film tells the story of Palestine from the nineteenth century through current times.
While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies above, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee stranded in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. When a chance meeting introduces her to the director, Sarah, she challenges her to find an ancient mulberry tree that once grew next to her grandfather’s house in historic Palestine, a tree that stands witness to her family’s existence.
In the region of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, Palestinians are being subjected to ethnic cleansing. Homes that have been passed down since the days of their grandparents are being reduced to rubble by bulldozers. Families who have lived by farming olive trees are forcibly displaced, and Israeli settlements are built in their place. Under international law, these acts are clear violations, yet they continue unabated. In the space of this grotesque violence—where Palestinian homes are demolished to make way for Israeli settlements—there is a familiar logo affixed to the heavy machinery. It belongs to HD Hyundai, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates. Suddenly, what once felt like a distant geopolitical issue jump-cuts into our lives—right to our doorstep.
Two Cameras for Palestine
The main characters of the film have made choices, which change their lives forever. A young man Yigal Amir assassinates the Prime Minister of Israel and becomes the most hated prisoner in the country. Larissa, who emigrated from Russia, mother of four divorces her first husband, marries the assassin and gives birth to his son. For many years the film authors have been trying to solve and perceive this complicated story. One of them, Hertz Frank, passes away during the shootings remaining on the threshold of the eternal mystery - life, death and love...
Building on Forensic Architecture’s previous investigation into herbicidal warfare and its effects on Palestinian farmers along the eastern perimeter of the occupied Gaza Strip, this investigation marks Land Day in Palestine by examining the systematic targeting of orchards and greenhouses by Israeli forces since October 2023. Our analysis reveals that this destruction is a widespread and deliberate act of ecocide that has exacerbated the ongoing catastrophic famine in Gaza and is part of a wider pattern of deliberately depriving Palestinians of critical resources for survival.
Foreign Names focuses on the worker displacement in a compilation of video clips from Aroma, a coffee shop chain. Ben-Ner’s video shows counter staff at the coffee shops yelling nonsensical English “names,” fabricated and given to them by the artist. The texts edited together become a lament of the waiters’ disappearance and the state of workers today.
A documentary focusing on the stories of three Israeli women seeking a divorce through religious courts.
Return
A film documenting the story of the Israeli refusnik-movement and interviews some of its protagonists. This timely documentary interweaves the stories of six soldiers who, after years of loyal reserve duty and annual active combat, find they can no longer countenance serving in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They become "refusniks" - an action that puts them at odds with deeply held national values and has devastating consequences in their own lives. In the film, six of the signers of the original "Combatants’ Letter" reveal the untenable combat experiences that led to their decision, the public outcry it provoked and the price they continue to pay for refusing to serve - including isolation, family ostracism and imprisonment. Winner, Ecumenical Jury Prize, Berlin Film Festival
While much of the world struggles to keep the planet going, a frighteningly large group of American fundamentalist Christians are working to promote the apocalypse. The evangelical movement is convinced that they will be saved when Jesus appears in the state of Israel on horseback and, with a sword raised to heaven, kills the infidels so that the blood reaches the horses’ bridles. Natural fires, corona, wars and crises are evidence that the time is nigh. But for the prophecies to be realized, the state of Israel has to grow stronger, so they provide huge financial support and are so far inside the White House that they help influence US foreign policy.