Palestine 36
Synopsis
Palestine 1936: Rising numbers of Jewish immigrants are arriving to escape persecution in Europe just as Palestinian villages are uniting in the largest and longest uprising against Britain’s 30-year colonial rule. The region is reaching a breaking point, spiraling toward an inevitable collision that will be a decisive turning point for the British Empire and the future of the land.
Within this tumultuous setting, Palestine 36 follows several characters caught up in the conflict. Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest, while young Afra tries to navigate the seismic changes with the aid of her grandmother. Meanwhile, a dissatisfied port worker finds the pressures of earning a living drawing him into the rebel movement. In this powerful and suspenseful work of historical fiction, starring such notable actors as Hiam Abbass and Jeremy Irons, renowned filmmaker Annemarie Jacir (Wajib, When I Saw You, and Like Twenty Impossibles, a winner at the Festival in 2023) uses a wide cinematic canvas to offer context, humanity, and complexity to a story that is still tragically unfolding.
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Media
Film Credits
- Ossama Bawardi, Cat Villiers, Azzam Fakhreddin, Hani Farsi, Nils Åstrand, Olivier Barbier, Nathanaël Karmitz, Katrin Pors, Hamza Ali
- Annemarie Jacir
- Tania Reddin
- Hélène Louvart, Sarah Blum, Tim Fleming
- Hiam Abbass, Kamel Al Basha, Yasmine Al Massri, Jalal Altawil, Robert Aramayo, Saleh Bakri, Yafa Bakri, Karim Daoud Anaya, Wardi Eilabouni, Ward Helou, Billy Howle, Dhafer L'Abidine, Liam Cunningham, Jeremy Irons
- Ben Frost
- Philistine Films, Autonomous, Corniche Media, MK Productions, Snowglobe
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Cotton Queen
Synopsis
In a close-knit Sudanese village known for harvesting the purist cotton by virginal hands, teenage Nafisa is dreaming of something beyond fertile fields. Her ambitions are amplified with the arrival of a wealthy young businessman returning to Sudan after years abroad. His introduction of a genetically modified seed promises to make the village completely dependent on his profit-driven vision of the future.
Through a blend of magical realism rooted in local spiritual customs set by village legend and elder Al-Sit, the film explores the complications inherent in the pursuit of progress as commerce and cultural sustainability vie for the hearts of the community. Nafisa’s strong will, open mind, and profoundly principled nature deepens and uplifts her to become the new hero her village needs yet might not be ready for.
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Film Credits
- Caroline Daube, Didar Domehri, Annemarie Jacir, Ossama Bawardi, Jessica Khoury, Mohamed Hefzy, Alaa Karkouti, Maher Diab
- Suzannah Mirghani
- Amparo Mejías, Simon Blasi, Frank Müller
- Frida Marzouk
- Mihad Murtada, Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud, Talaat Fareed, Haram Bisheer, Mohamed Musa, Hassan Kassala
- Amine Bouhafa
- Strange Bird, Maneki Films, Philistine Films, Film Clinic, Mad Solutions
Sponsors
Program Patron
Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation
With support from
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Calle Malaga
Synopsis
Fiercely independent eighty-year-old Spaniard María is a vibrant lifelong member of her beloved Tangier community, but her stability is threatened when daughter Clara arrives for a long-overdue visit. In dire financial straits after a divorce, Clara intends to sell the family home, left to her by her late father, and even begins liquidating the property’s antiques to hasten the proceedings. But María won’t go so easily. Determined to find the financial means to keep her apartment and win back her belongings, María sets out on a surprising, romance-fueled late-in-life adventure.
Screen legend Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Volver) delivers an unforgettable performance suffused with warmth, humor, and gentle defiance in this crowd-pleasing story of a woman refusing to relinquish neither her independence nor her dignity. Making her Spanish-language debut, Moroccan director and Festival alum Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan) brings a palpable sense of place to the screen. She renders María’s colorful coastal enclave in bright hues and her winning ensemble of neighbors with affection, richness, and complexity.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Nabil Ayouch, Amine Benjelloun, Jean-Rémi Ducourtioux, Simon de Santiago, Fernando Bovaira, Fred Burle, Sol Bondy, Sebastian Schelenz
- Maryam Touzani, Nabil Ayouch
- Teresa Font
- Virginie Surdej
- Carmen Maura, Marta Etura, Ahmed Boulane, María Alfonsa Rosso
- Freya Arde
- Les Films du Nouveau Monde, Mod Producciones, One Two Films, Velvet Films, Ali n’ Productions
Sponsors
With support from
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Bouchra
Synopsis
Bouchra, a coyote, is a queer Moroccan filmmaker based in New York City, navigating love and work in a world populated by other animal friends and family, including her hot ex-girlfriend, a cow, her best friend, a lizard, and her mom, Aicha, a coyote who lives back home in Casablanca. While Bouchra is finding her way in Manhattan, she has never resolved her mother’s lack of acceptance of her sexuality. It’s not that Bouchra has never come out; it’s that despite their closeness, her mom simply refuses to talk about it.
Brought to life in 3D animation, filmmaking team Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, known for their 2020 lockdown art sensation 2 Lizards, have crafted a unique animated docu-fiction hybrid that is profoundly intimate, light-hearted, and touching, with a quirky surrealist edge. So what if they’re cool animals? Bouchra is a universal story of immigrant life, family conflict, and queer identity.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- 2 Lizards
- Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani, Ayla Mrabet
- Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani
- John Michael Boling
- Meriem Bennani, Yto Barrada, Orian Barki, Ariana Faye Allensworth, Salima Dhaibi
- Flavien Berger
- Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani, Max Brun, Hi Production, Cécile Winckler, Octavia Peissel, Ella Bishop, Pau Suris, Jake Cheetham
- 2 Lizards Production, Hi Production, Fondazione Prada
Sponsors
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Below the Clouds Sotto le nuvole
Synopsis
From the Oscar-nominated director of Fire at Sea comes an immersive and impressionistic portrait of humanity at the precipice. With Below the Clouds, celebrated filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi trains his camera on communities living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano famous for burying the city of Pompeii nearly two centuries ago. Today, the area lies at a unique juncture between historic calamity and contemporary anxieties. As museum workers labor to preserve Pompeii’s extraordinary ruins and precious artifacts, the film also ventures into tunnels and classrooms, encounters firemen and teachers, and observes Japanese archeologists in the field and Syrian sailors shipping grain from Ukraine.
Filmed in luminous black and white and replete with haunting images from smoky skies to murky depths, Below the Clouds uniquely connects the sublime with the everyday. One of its most memorable refrains is its return to an emergency call center tasked with assisting harried citizens with problems both minor and harrowing. When the region is hit with a significant earthquake, the heavy legacy of history weighs on the panicked callers seeking help. Eruptions and disruptions, it seems, continue to come in many forms.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Donatella Palermo, Gianfranco Rosi, Paolo Del Brocco
- Gianfranco Rosi with the collaboration of Carmelo Marabello, Marie-Pierre Müller
- Fabrizio Federico
- Gianfranco Rosi
- Daniel Blumberg
- 21Uno Film, Stemal Entertainment, with Rai Cinema
Sponsors
Program Partner
Program Patron
Cynthia Stone Raskin
With support from
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