The Palestinian Film Festival Returns In 2022

Returning for the first in-person event since 2019, the Palestinian Film Festival is back with a program celebrating the very best of Palestinian cinema, with a mix of film festival favourites, award-winning features, and ground-breaking documentaries.

Traversing themes of people, place and identity, this year’s Festival presents the very best in Palestinian cinema to audiences in Melbourne (3-6 Nov).

We’re very proud to present the best of Palestinian cinema for our exciting eleventh Festival! This year’s program focuses on the power of personal storytelling in building individual and collective resilience,” said Festival Director Naser Shakhtour. “With award-winning films set in Palestine 1948 to present day Palestine, we have curated an engaging and unforgettable program guaranteed to inform and inspire."

Opening the festival this year is the debut feature from Jordanian filmmaker Darin J. Sallam titled Fahra. Having premiered in the Next Wave strand at TIFF 2021, Sallam’s dauntless and compelling feature debut tells the story of Fahra, a promising young woman with dreams of attending school unlike other girls her age. Following the end of British control over Palestine in 1948, Fahra and her father are unaware of the force displacements starting in their region, and when Israeli bombs reach her village, Fahra’s life is changed forever. A devastating story about loss, dispossession and survival, Fahra is a poignant and remarkable first feature from a filmmaker on the rise.

This year’s program features favourites from some of the world’s most prestigious festivals. Headlined by the winner of the Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Screenplay Award, Mediterranean Fever, a darkly comic drama about an unlikely friendship formed between a depressed man and a small-time crook with an ulterior motive. Oher highlights include Venice Film Festival hit, Gaza Mon Amour, a charming and unexpectedly funny romantic drama about an aging fisherman who accidentally catches an ancient statue in his fishing net, which proves to be an unexpected hinderance in his attempts to propose to his secret love. Also from Venice, and the Palestinian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, is the critically acclaimed debut feature by Syrian writer/director Ameer Fakher Eldin, The Stranger, which is a fearless and moving film about survival and redemption. For cinephiles looking to be on the edge of their seat will be able to watch audience favourite from TIFF and the Sydney Film Festival, Huda’s Salon, which tells the twisting and gripping story about a Palestinian woman who is blackmailed into becoming an informant for Israel’s internal security service or the latest offering from acclaimed director Mohamed Diab, Venice Film Festival melodrama, Amira, which tells the story of a Palestinian teenager whose identity is suddenly thrown into question when she finds out her father could not have conceived her.