Three powerful films are gaining attention this awards season, all with a crucial shared purpose: bringing Palestinian stories to the forefront.
These three remarkable films—’The Voice of Hind Rajab,’ ‘All That’s Left of You,’ and ‘Palestine 36’—collectively span almost a century of Palestinian history. While their narratives and timelines vary, a common thread unites them: a profound commitment to move beyond superficial headlines and social media, revealing the intricate and deeply human experiences of Palestinians.
Just two years ago, Tunisian director and writer Kaouther Ben Hania was moved by voice recordings of a 5-year-old girl from Gaza, Hind. Trapped in a car amidst her deceased relatives, Hind’s haunting, high-pitched voice captivated the world. Tragically, despite rescue attempts by the Palestine Red Crescent, she was found dead almost two weeks later.
Despite being deeply involved in her next film, a Tunisian period piece, Ben Hania—already an Oscar nominee for her 2023 documentary ‘Four Daughters’—felt compelled to tell Hind’s story, especially as the conflict in Gaza escalated. She passionately stated that ‘Palestinian voices are suppressed and invisible,’ yet Hind’s distinct voice was unforgettable. After reaching out to Hind’s mother, Wesam Hamada, she secured permission to create the film.
The resulting docudrama, ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab,’ masterfully incorporates Hind’s actual voice recordings. Actors like Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Amer Hlehel, and Clara Khoury bring to life the intense rescue attempts from the Red Crescent’s West Bank call center. This Tunisian-shot film is now a contender for the best international Oscar at the upcoming Academy Awards.
Ben Hania directed her cast to embody the same desperate hope as the real-life rescue workers. The script meticulously follows the authentic recordings, with actors hearing the full conversations only as filming began. The raw emotion is palpable; Ben Hania recalled one actor being so overwhelmed by Hind’s cries that he visibly broke down during a take.
In contrast to Ben Hania’s immediate response to the Gaza conflict, Palestinian American director and actress Cherien Dabis had been developing ‘All That’s Left of You’ for years. This film delves into the intergenerational trauma within a Palestinian family. Drawing inspiration from her own family, Dabis aimed to depict ‘what it is to endure decades of political violence and how that changes you.’ Nominated for best international film at the Indie Spirits, it features the late Palestinian actor Mohammad Bakri and his sons, Adam and Saleh, with Dabis herself portraying the family’s matriarch.
The narrative commences in Jaffa in 1948, amidst the ‘Nakba’—the ‘catastrophe’ that saw the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during Israel’s formation. The story then advances to 1978, finding the family in a West Bank refugee camp, and finally to 1988, during the first Intifada, a significant uprising against Israeli occupation.
Pre-production kicked off in May 2023 in the West Bank. However, after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, the region entered lockdown, leading many international crew members to depart. Dabis adapted her plans, focusing on scenes slated for Cyprus while monitoring the feasibility of returning to the West Bank. Faced with indefinite delays, she opted to complete filming in Jordan and Greece, employing remote video calls to direct a local team for the remaining West Bank scenes.
Dabis highlighted that ‘more than half the film was shot in Palestinian refugee camps’ in northern Jordan, an experience she described as invaluable. ‘It was great because we got to work with the Palestinian refugee community in the telling of, essentially, their own story,’ she remarked.
‘Palestine 36,’ a historical drama from Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, sheds light on a less-explored chapter: the farmer-led uprising against British colonial rule in Mandatory Palestine. Featuring an ensemble cast including Hiam Abbass and Jeremy Irons, the film begins in 1936, a period when the Balfour Declaration facilitated the immigration of millions of Jews to the region.
The narrative expertly navigates between two distinct Palestinian realities: a rural village where farmers face job loss and land dispossession, and the cosmopolitan city of Jerusalem, where affluent landowners, engrossed in lavish parties, remain indifferent to the farmers’ struggles. The declaration of a mass strike soon escalates tensions between the local population and the British administration, leading to a catastrophic climax.
Jacir, a Bethlehem resident, explained her decision to focus on these historical events to illustrate how the British Empire inadvertently paved the way for subsequent Israeli occupation. Her research, she noted, increasingly revealed ‘how contemporary and relevant it is to right now.’
Much like Dabis, Jacir encountered significant obstacles. Her team dedicated almost a year to constructing sets and meticulously restoring a village to authentically recreate the 1930s era. They also navigated strict Israeli restrictions in the West Bank, enduring lengthy delays at checkpoints. Production paused entirely after October 7, eventually forcing a relocation to Jordan, where a new village had to be rebuilt. Yet, Jacir was adamant about filming the concluding scenes in the West Bank and Israel, asserting, ‘I didn’t want to finish the film anywhere else.’ She emphasized that the landscape itself was an integral character, one that simply could not be substituted.
This feature film, set to open in New York on March 20 with a broader national release in April, marks Jacir’s fourth work chosen as the official Oscar submission from the Palestinian territories. Both her film and Jordan’s entry, ‘All That’s Left of You,’ advanced to the Academy Award shortlist for best international feature, though neither ultimately secured a nomination.
The ongoing conflict in Gaza intensified the filmmaking process for all three directors. Dabis reflected, ‘We were literally creating scenes from 1948 that we were watching again happen on a more catastrophic, unprecedented scale in Gaza.’ Despite their shock at the war’s duration, both she and Ben Hania found their projects offered a measure of solace. Dabis described it as ‘channeling our grief rather than acting.’
Jacir, in response to the war, chose to remove lighter elements from her script, feeling they were no longer fitting. She noted, ‘Everything just became heavier,’ and described ‘Palestine 36’ as a creation born of love, profound pain, and intense rage.
Bringing these films to fruition proved challenging. ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab,’ despite securing executive producers like Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, and Rooney Mara, and winning the top award at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, ultimately found distribution through independent company WILLA rather than a major studio. Similarly, ‘All That’s Left of You’ debuted at Sundance in 2025 with executive producer support from Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem. However, Dabis noted that mainstream distributors were ‘afraid of the subject matter’—a sentiment echoed by the creators of ‘No Other Land,’ a film about Israeli home demolitions in the West Bank that later won a Best Documentary Oscar.
Every filmmaker collaborated in some capacity with Watermelon Pictures, a production and distribution company founded by Palestinian American brothers Hamza and Badie Ali. Hamza Ali explained their mission: ‘There’s not a lot of distributors willing to roll the dice on these films. That’s why we exist.’
Launched in 2024, Watermelon Pictures aims to champion narratives that challenge prevailing perceptions. Ali articulated the company’s objective: to counter the long-standing dehumanization of Palestinians in entertainment. ‘We want to move past that,’ he emphasized, ‘We want people to think of us beyond our suffering.’