A collection of films from and/or about Israel and Palestine.
For films that focus more specifically on the global Jewish experience, please visit Jewish Stories.
Directed by Mohamed Diab • Drama • 2022 • 100 minutes
Amira (Tara Abboud), a 17 year old Palestinian, was conceived with the smuggled sperm of her imprisoned father, Nawar. Although their relationship since birth has been restricted to prison visits, he remains her hero. His absence in her life ...
Directed by Julia Bacha • Documentary • With Naila Ayesh, Jamal Zakout, Roni Ben Efrat • 2017 • 59 minutes
When a nationwide uprising breaks out in 1987, a woman in Gaza must choose between love, family, and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three, joining a clandestine network of women in a ...
Directed by Guy Davidi & Emad Burnat • Documentary • 2011 • 90 minutes
An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements....
Directed by Kamal Hachkar • Documentary • 2011 • 86 minutes
In TINGHIR-JERUSALEM, filmmaker and historian Kamal Hachkar goes in search of a community that has vanished - and confronts fundamental questions of his own identity in the process. A Berber Muslim born in Tinghir, Morocco and raised in...
Directed by Nurith Aviv • Documentary • 2020 • 61 minutes
In Nurith Aviv’s unexpected, original documentary, seven young interviewees share their love for Yiddish avant-garde poetry written between the World Wars. An expressive hybrid “jargon” with roots in Hebrew, German and Slavic languages, Y...
Directed by Hany Abu-Assad • Drama • With Qais Attaallah, Heba Attaallah, Ahmad Qassim • 2016 • 95 minutes
Gaza. Synonymous to so many with conflict, destruction and despair but to Mohammed Assaf, and his sister Nour, Gaza is their home and their playground. It’s where they, along with their be...
Directed by Leila Sansour • Documentary • 2017 • 90 minutes
Reports predict that if trends continue the Christian community of Bethlehem, a city that provides a model for a multi-faith Middle East, may be unsustainable within one generation. The enormous wall and ongoing Israeli settlements are ...
Directed by Yaelle Kayam • Drama • With Shani Klein, Avshalom Polak, Haitham Omri, Orly Pearl • 2015 • 81 minutes
In 'Mountain,' a young Orthodox Jewish woman becomes involved with a nocturnal community of prostitutes and drug dealers. Tzvia lives with her family in the Jewish cemetery on Jerusa...
Directed by Graça Castanheira • Documentary • With Suad Amiry • 2013 • 30 minutes
Ten personalities from diverse social and geographical backgrounds reflect on the world and its future. A portrait in multiple voices of contemporary reality, revealing the deep connections that exist between our m...
Directed by Mike Dibb • Documentary • 2004 • 114 minutes
Producer: D. D. Guttenplan; Interviewer: Charles Glass
Edward Said, University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was one of the most important literary critics of the late 20th century, and for many y...
Directed by Ronit Elkabetz & Shlomi Elkabetz • Drama • With Ronit Elkabetz, Menashe Noy • 2015 • 115 minutes
An Israeli woman (Ronit Elkabetz) seeking to finalize a divorce (gett) from her estranged husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country’s religious marriage laws, in this ...
Directed by Mohamed Jabaly • Documentary • 2016 • 78 minutes
Mohamed, 24, aspires to make films in Gaza City, despite the lack of water, electricity, and closed borders that are part of every ‘normal’ day under the 7-year Israeli blockade of Gaza. While many young people dream of leaving Gaza, M...
Directed by Romed Wyder • Documentary • 2018 • 52 minutes
The birth of the modern state of Israel was far from inevitable. As AND THERE WAS ISRAEL compellingly shows, when it comes to Israel and Palestine, the current crisis is rooted choices made in response to 19th century geopolitics, colonia...
Directed by Kasim Abid • Documentary • 1999 • 52 minutes
'During the 30 years since I started drawing, I feel I have been through every Arab prison and I ask myself: What is there to come after all this? I was prepared to die defending just one drawing, because every drawing is like a drop of wa...
Directed by Florence Jammot • Documentary • 2014 • 60 minutes
On December 15, 1961 in Jerusalem, Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death for crimes against the Jewish people and against humanity. While this judgment was met with consensus on a national level, some spoke out against it. On May 29, ...
Directed by Alan Snitow & Deborah Kaufman • Documentary • 2011 • 70 minutes
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS is a groundbreaking personal exploration of the community and family divisions that are redefining American Jewish identity and politics. The filmmakers' own families are battlegrounds over loyalty to ...
Directed by Stephen Apkon, Andrew Young • Documentary • 2017 • 86 minutes
In a world torn by conflict — in a place where the idea of peace has been abandoned — an energy of determined optimism emerges. When someone is willing to disturb the status quo and stand for the dream of a free and secure...
Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 2006 • 78 minutes
According to director Chantal Akerman, she never planned to make a film in Israel. She was convinced that neutrality does not exist and that her subjectivity would get in her way. She was sure she would only be able to reflect on 'the...
Directed by Duki Dror, Chen Shelach, Galia Engelmayer-Dror • Documentary • 2015 • 56 minutes
Brought together by a shared business acumen of the logistics industry, the women combine forces to help Palestinian businessmen navigate the everyday absurdities of the Israeli occupation. But while the...
Directed by Keren Shayo • Documentary • 2013 • 58 minutes
Since 2006 when Europe closed its borders, human trafficking has burgeoned in Egypt’s Sinai Desert, where Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees heading north to Israel are kidnapped, held hostage, and tortured by Bedouin smugglers demandin...