Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 is an epic historical film that takes the audience back to 1936 when Palestine began to make a great push resisting British colonial rule. It is not only an astoundingly well made film with incredible performances, it is a film that is a much needed history lesson that needs to be shown in every school and university in western nations and around the world. At its core, the film shows the Palestinian resistance for what it really is: a fight for freedom and independence which has been going on for many, many decades.
We are living in some truly monumental times where for the first time ever, with a massive part of it driven by Watermelon Pictures, we are seeing films about the Palestinian people that rightfully sheds the western narrative depicting them as terrorists but as a people of unimaginable resilience and courage. And now with Palestine 36, we are being treated with stories of the past that connects a much needed throughline to the present that to understand what the western powers deem as terrorism, it is in fact resistance for the pursuit of freedom.
While there is no doubt that some would immediately balk at the accuracy of this film, it is worth noting that one of its producing companies, BBC Film, made the filmmaker Annemarie Jacir go through a rigorous fact check of its script with a historian. The verdict? Everything is rock solid in their depiction of history with the exception that their main antagonistic character (played by a terrifyingly good Robert Aramayo) was far worse in real life than he is shown in this film.
By centering the storyline in the Great Palestinian Revolt on the year of 1936, Jacir ambitiously tackles this revolt with a sprawling cast of characters and storylines that takes some time to set up but once all the pieces are in place, the film moves with great flourish.
You have the port worker Khalid (Saleh Bakri who has pretty much become the face of Palestinian cinema with this film, Cherien Dabis‘ All That’s Left Of You, and The Teacher) who becomes a rebel fighter through intolerable working conditions, the sophisticated journalist Khouloud (Yasmine Al Massri) who is relentless in her pursuit of the truth against colonial injustices, village community folks like the young Afra (Wardi Eilabouni) and her grandmother Hanan (Hiam Abbas) who face rising threats from Zionist settlers, and the character who is at the center of the film, Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya) who experiences quite a journey connecting the rural and urban worlds to becoming a resistance fighter himself.
On the British side, there is the idealistic and administrator Thomas (Billy Howle), the clueless high commissioner Wauchope (Jeremy Irons), the sadistic Christian Zionist Captain Wingate (Robert Aramayo), and a brief appearance by Charles Tegart (Liam Cunningham, who is himself a very active advocate for the Palestinian cause). With such a large cast, the slow-burn pace is actually quite necessary for the audience to take into account what each of these characters play into the storyline with a fantastic ensemble to bring them to life.
Newcomer Karim Daoud Anaya is just magnetic as our center lead Yusuf with Yasmine Al Massri creating such a fascinating and incredible character in Khouloud that I wished to follow her journey well after the film ended. I also found myself absolutely despising Captain Wingate, which is a testament to Robert Aramayo for giving life to such a heinous character that unfortunately serves as a mirror to what Zionism truly is: racism and supremacy.
It is a testament to the filmmaker that the film succeeds in tying everything together in a cohesive and stirring fashion that serves as a primer for many in the audience who would more likely be watching a film like this than a documentary. From its devastating conclusion, one is reminded that the plight of the Palestinian people continues to this day as in the past two years alone, they not only endured a genocide that has martyred over 68k+ people (which still continues as the “ceasefire” has been countlessly violated by Israel and is on the verge of collapsing) but that they are still very much living under an apartheid occupation that denies them sovereignty and freedom.
The closing images of the people protesting for Palestinian sovereignty echoes to our current times where history has a funny way of repeating itself but this time around, the world has finally awakened. As a companion piece to the film, I would highly suggest checking out Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine if you wish to learn more in detail as it is a must-read book that not only details this revolt but everything led up to it and everything that happened afterwards.
Palestine 36 had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2025. Prior to this, Watermelon Pictures acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film, with the release date TBD at this time. It is one of three films on Palestinian history to be submitted to the 98th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film — the others being All That’s Left of You and The Voice of Hind Rajab.
