Skip to main content
Palestine 36 film image; people riding horses in the desert

Palestine 36

This event has passed

Set during the 1936 Palestinian uprising against British colonial rule, this epic historical drama follows a resilient ensemble of characters. Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya), a peasant, straddles two worlds — the bustling city of Jerusalem, and his rural farming village, whose lands are being confiscated by Zionist settlers. Denied fair wages, a Jaffa port dockworker (Saled Bakri, Blue Caftan) joins the rebel movement. Elsewhere, a widowed mother (Yafa Bakri) stashes away an heirloom gun in hopes of defending her family from the British military’s raids.

Shot on location in Palestine and Jordan and interspersed with rare archival footage, the film boasts an exceptional international cast, including Hiam Abbas (Succession), Jeremy Irons (Reversal of Fortune), and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones). The third feature from writer-director Annemarie Jacir (When I Saw You; Wajib) to be selected as the Palestinian entry for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards, Palestine 36 is a masterwork of class tensions and sociopolitical intrigue.

 

Oscar Submission: Palestine

Director

Annemarie Jacir

Cast

Saleh Bakri, Hiam Abbass, Jeremy Irons

Credits
Country of Origin

Palestine/UK/France/Denmark/
Norway/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Jordan

Year

2025

Language

In Arabic and English with English subtitles

Links
19+
118 min
Drama Women Directors
Philistine Films, Autonomous, Corniche Media, MK Productions, Snowglobe

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Producer

Ossama Bawardi, Cat Villiers, Azzam Fakhreddin, Hani Farsi, Nils Åstrand, Olivier Barbier, Nathanaël Karmitz, Katrin Pors, Hamza Ali

Screenwriter

Annemarie Jacir

Cinematography

Hélène Louvart, Sarah Blum, Tim Fleming

Editor

Tania Reddin

Production Design

Nael Kanj

Original Music

Ben Frost

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Secret in Their Eyes

Dir. Juan José Campanella
129 min

This month's Talking Pictures screening is a multi-layered, poignant thriller interweaving the personal lives of a prosecution investigator (Ricardo Darin) and a judge, with a manhunt spanning twenty-five years. Stay for cookies, coffee and a chat after!

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

American Doctor

Dir. Poh Si Teng
93 min

One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Sunless

Dir. Chris Marker
103 min

Chris Marker's dazzling and discursive essay film ranges across Japan, Africa, San Francisco, Iceland, politics, philosophy, ritual, movies and memory. It's a film for the permanently curious.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Meet Me In St. Louis

Dir. Vincente Minnelli
113 min

Vincente Minnelli's heartwarming evergreen chronicles an ordinarily tumultuous year in the life of a prosperous household in 1904. It's debatable that MGM ever conjured a more affecting musical.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema