Showcasing a diverse and innovative selection of Palestinian films from around the world, the Palestine Film Festival is a cinematic journey of creative, thought-provoking storytelling.
This year marks the 11th edition of the festival in Australia, and follows a temporary pause over the past few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival is part of a thriving Palestinian film industry working to facilitate Palestinian cultural output while strengthening social and economic ties between Palestine and Australia. It includes a broad selection of films:
Boycott (2021), which traces the impact of state legislation in the United States designed to penalise individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record;
Fadia’s Tree (2022), which tells the story of a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, stranded by history on the wrong side of the border, yearning for the ancestral homeland she is denied;
Little Palestine, Diary of a Seige (2021), a filmed diary of the daily life in the biggest Palestinian refugee camp – Yarmouk, in Damascus, Syria and its besieged inhabitants, who decided to face bombing, displacement and hunger with rallying, study, music, love and joy;
Hommus: A story of appropriation (2020), is emblematic of Palestinians’ loss of land, dignity, and identity. Set against the backdrop of the Israeli appropriation of hummus as quintessential to Israeli cuisine, Palestinian-American filmmaker Lafi Abood captures the lives of ordinary Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Read the article by Kerry Smith in Green Left.