Reel Palestine 2024

The UAE’s annual festival of Palestinian stories delivered via independent and alternative cinema is back, and with massively enhanced relevance. The films, mostly in Arabic with English subtitles, are …

The Teacher dir Farah Nabulsi (2023) A Palestinian school teacher struggles to reconcile his life-threatening commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students and the chance of a new romantic relationship with a British volunteer worker

26 Jan 7pm (screening plus Q&A with director)
4 Feb 5pm 7pm 9.30pm

Here and Elsewhere dir Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Groupe Dziga Vertov, Anne-Marie Miéville (1976) Commissioned to produce a film on the Palestinian Revolution, Godard and Gorin’s plans were upended by the Black September attacks. Godard and Miéville transformed the original footage into a scathing self-critical documentary, paralleling the lives of a French and a Palestinian family

​26 Jan 10pm

R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity dir Mohanad Yacubi (2022) The growing struggle for Palestinian self-determination between 1960 and 1980 was supported by radical left-wing movements worldwide. This is illustrated by a collection of 16mm films by militant filmmakers from various countries, which were dubbed and screened in Japan – where audiences sympathised but also identified with the Palestinians

2 Feb 7pm

Aida Returns dir Carol Mansour (2023) A poignant, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of a multiple journey: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggled with losing herself to Alzheimer’s disease, but finding solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa and Palestine of her youth; the journey of the loss of a parent; and the ultimate return journey back to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest and be herself once more

27 Jan 7pm (screening plus Q&A with director)
3 Feb 9.30pm

Lyd dir Rami Younes, Sarah Ema Friedland (2023) A sci fi documentary of a city that once connected Palestine to the world — what it once was, what it is now, and what it could have become.

27 Jan 9pm
31 Jan 7pm (screening plus Q&A with directors)

Slingshot Hip Hop dir Jacqueline Reem Salloum (2008) A documents on the emergence and evolution of Palestinian Hip Hop, weaving together the narratives of young artists navigating life in Gaza, the West Bank, and Palestine

27 Jan 8pm (outdoor screening at The Yard)

We No Longer Prefer Mountains dir Inas Halabi (2023) Documentary on the Druze towns of Dalyet el Carmel and Isfiya, drawing the viewer into a world of geographic isolation and a locale shaped by coercion and control. Weaving together intimate engagements with members of the community in shared domestic spaces and outdoor environments, the film explores how the inner politics of the Druze have been reconfigured and reshaped since 1948

27 Jan 9.15pm (screening plus Q&A with director)
1 Feb 9.15pm

Tomorrow’s Freedom: Marwan Barghouti dir Georgia Scott, Sophia Scott (2022) For five years, the directors followed the family of imprisoned Palestinian political leader and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Marwan Barghouti; the resulting film shares the struggles of his hunger strikes, brought on by harsh prison conditions and the desire to make a stand. A collage of interviews with the people who know him best, Tomorrow’s Freedom paints a portrait of a man who may one day lead the Palestinian people

28 Jan 4.15pm (screening plus Q&A with director)
31 Jan 9.15pm

Three Promises dir Yousef Srouji (2023) A mother films her family’s daily life the second intifada in the West Bank in the early 2000s. Her son revisits this past, delivering a heart-breaking film that conveys the anguish of children and their parents who are forced to choose between safety and emotional upheaval

29 Jan 9.15pm
30 Jan 7pm (screening plus Q&A with director)

Bye Bye Tiberias dir Lina Soualem (2023) 30 years ago, Hiam Abbass left her native village in Galilee to follow her acting dream in France. Camera in hand, her daughter Lina questions her mother’s bold choices and the way the women in her family – who she has left behind – have influenced her life

28 Jan 7pm (screening plus Q&A with director)
29 Jan 7pm

Short Film Programme Four shorts, total run time about 90 minutes

30 Jan 9pm (screenings plus Q&A with Red Passport protagonist Yara Alsaade)
1 Feb 7pm (screenings plus Q&A with Heavy Metal director Waleed Abu Nada)

Notes On Displacement dir Khaled Jarrar (2022) Documentary following a single family of refugees on a gruelling journey to Germany. Their fear, disorientation, and solidarity is palpable

2 Feb 9pm
3 Feb 7pm (screening plus Q&A with director)

Unless otherwise noted, screenings are at Cinema Akil; tickets are normally AED 52.50. Note that Quoz Art fest runs 27 and 28 January, and for films on those dates you’ll have to pay extra to actually get into Alserkal Avenue (AED 63 for the weekend, and well worth it anyway).