You almost believe Amir (Dhafer L’Abidine) wants the village perspective when asking his chauffeur Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya) to explain the Palestinian experience outside the city to a collection of landowners at his table. He’s barely able to get the preamble out before one of the guests reminds him of his place: it’s them who pay British taxes while the farmers never pay off their debts. There’s no clearer picture of just how powerful a role greed plays in our world’s tone-deaf political discord. They ignore their kin’s real issues while wondering if “Zionism could be a good thing,” since their property matters most.
That’s the crucial context writer-director Annemarie Jacir provides within her latest film Palestine 36––a sprawling epic compared to her previous character-driven dramas. She’s giving weight to each and every piece of the puzzle that ultimately led us to today’s genocide of the Palestinian people by the hands of Israel’s Zionist regime. It wasn’t just outsiders like colonial Britain or newcomers like the rapid influx of Jewish settlers into the region; it was also the misguided actions of Palestine’s own leaders allowing the potential for self-advancement through European influence to cloud their judgement.
Yusuf is our way in, the connective tissue bridging these two worlds by traveling between them. The son of a farmer who needs his presence to help the family survive, this young man yearns for more. Who better to supply the blueprint for that than Amir and his wife Khouloud (Yasmine Al Massri)? He’s a man who sits with British diplomats like Billy Howle’s Thomas and hobnobs with military personnel like Robert Aramayo’s evil Captain Wingate. And his wife is the leading voice for Palestinian freedom under a male pen name. His sway with the ruling class and hers with the people positions them to make a difference.
It’s not enough to just stand as a symbol of that hope, though, when Palestinian workers are radicalized daily by an obvious shift in the political tide. Men like Khalid (Saleh Bakri) have no interest in war; they’re men of principle who do their job to support their families. As more Jewish immigrants arrive, however, the ability for racists to be racist rises. Jews are suddenly paid more than Arabs, and talk about Arabs putting community above the individual quickly becomes a weaponized, back-handed compliment forcing them to cede more ground to their “neighbors.” Eventually even Khalid sees the truth.
Cue the rebellion––not out of blood lust or hate, but sheer survival. Land that has been worked by and holds graves of Palestinians is given to Jewish settlers for free by decree of the Crown (Jeremy Irons’ High Commissioner Wauchope loves to blame the Motherland for his actions in their name). Men like Thomas are allies for trying to create a map of borders to give farmers increased rights, but even they ultimately transform into purveyors of false hope due to their own naïveté. And the moment Britain gives that land away, suddenly the settlers are given the right to defend it––rights refused to the Palestinians it was stolen from.
As Jacir’s chapter titles and date marks reveal, this complete takeover happens almost overnight. The film begins in 1936 and only moves into 1937 before everything has changed. The violence by and support of the British gifts the Zionists the full upper hand based solely on the idea that they had the power to declare the formation of a Jewish State in a land that wasn’t theirs to control. Why? Because they see a way towards establishing a foothold. They see a stronger allegiance from the Zionists than they do the Arabs. And, while the poor can suss this reality out, men like Amir still believe the lies. They still help facilitate them.
It’s all here: rock-throwing, land mines, all the earmarks of rebel “animals” that have indoctrinated the western world, but now from the perspective of the desperation driving it. Brutal, unprovoked violence solely upon Arabs for demanding their voices be heard and rights upheld. Blatant criminality against Arabs with zero risk of consequences. Whereas so many Hollywood examples reduce this region’s story to terrorism, Palestine 36 gives it the care necessary to remind us how that label is often used by oppressive forces to maintain their control. As Liam Cunningham’s Tegart admits, “We don’t want another Ireland.”
Thus children are forced to watch their parents murdered in the streets. They’re forced to fear for their lives and learn that they hold no value simply because a foreign soldier with a gun callously laps up the ego boost of a superiority complex in motion. Those with true power unwittingly relinquish it for nothing while those with none do something to gain it for themselves. And through it all we see the compassion and sense of human dignity from only one side of the equation: the Palestinian rebels. That doesn’t mean they aren’t violent themselves. You must simply ask yourself where they learned that violence from.
The entire cast is fantastic. From Hiam Abbass and Yafa Bakri in the village to Jalal Altawil’s Father Boulos perpetually reminding the British soldiers wronging him that he still hopes God forgives them; even Aramayo supplying the malicious intent necessary to understand there could be no answer but war. Al Massri and Saleh Bakri perfectly toe the tenuous line separating their empathy from their rage, and you couldn’t receive a better steward into the human element at play than Karim Daoud Anaya. His Yusuf authentically morphs from optimist to skeptic to rebel. He has no other choice.
Hopefully audiences will make theirs and see this film to allow themselves the breadth of knowledge and history propaganda simply cannot provide. Make a double-bill with Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana––its perspective on Britain’s role in this chaos is pretty well-aligned with the one here. While it could just ignore the Arab piece completely so as not to wade through complicated waters, Palestine 36 cannot ignore the Zionist complicity in or advantage from British doctrine. And, if nothing else, Jacir’s latest should at least remind you that protecting one religion or race should never come at the expense of another.
Palestine 36 premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.