Permission to Narrate

A Reel Palestine capsule programme of six films which challenge narratives that have long marginalised Palestinian voices, advocating for an embrace and amplification of their stories.

Bab El Shams (Gate of the Sun): dir Yousri Nasrallah (2004)
A powerful film that spans 50 years of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, based around a group of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from Galilee in 1948 (above).
15 May 7pm

Divine Intervention: dir Elia Suleiman (2002)
A romantic comedy with a twist: separated by a checkpoint, Palestinian lovers from Jerusalem and Ramallah have to arrange clandestine meetings.
17 May 7pm | 18 May 5pm

Tomorrow’s Freedom – Marwan Barghouti: dir Georgia Scott & Sophia Scott (2022)
For five years, Georgia and Sophia Scott followed the family of imprisoned Palestinian political leader and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison.
17 May 9pm | 19 May 7pm

The Tower: dir Mats Grorud (2018)
An animated tale of 11-year-old Wardi, a Palestinian girl who lives with her whole family in the refugee camp where she was born. She learns about her family’s history through stories told to her by three generations of refugees.
18 May 3pm | 19 May 3.30pm

Rana’s Wedding: dir Hany Abu-Assad (2002)
Rana wakes up one morning to an ultimatum: she must either choose a husband from a preselected list of men, or she must leave Palestine for Egypt with her father afternoon. With ten hours to find her boyfriend in occupied Jerusalem, she sneaks out of her father’s house at daybreak to find her forbidden love.
18 May 7pm | 19 May 9.15pm

Jenin, Jenin: dir Mohammad Bakri (2002)
Documentary about the 2002 deadly confrontations between armed Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
18 May 9pm | 19 May 5.30pm