PALESTINE 36

Palestine’s official submission for this year’s Academy Awards, Palestine 36 is set nearly a century earlier, although it sheds light on the present day like few films currently in production do. Epic in its conception and form, blending poignant period drama, archival footage, and a powerful political statement all at once, this film transports us to Palestine in 1936, when the crumbling British Empire sought to suppress the yearning and struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation and national self-actualization by every possible means, while the Jewish settlers arrived in the region to make way for the establishment of their own nation. Following the stories of three ordinary people thrust in the relentless tide of History through alternating and intertwining narrative threads, and with a cast that includes first-class stars such as Jeremy Irons and Hiam Abbas, the filmmaker Annemarie Jacir composes something much greater than a mere panorama of an era: through a meticulously studied and finely executed multi-faceted yet intimate drama, she vividly illuminates the roots of a conflict that shape the past and present of our world.