Palestine 36 Review

History Echoes in a Time of Crisis

By: Marc Kozak

Palestine 36

History Echoes in a Time of Crisis

By: Marc Kozak

Since the 2023 escalation of the long-unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there has been an increased effort (especially in the Western world) to try to understand where and when these hostilities began. As such, movies from filmmakers native to the region have seen a significant increase in worldwide attention and viewership. Recent projects like No Other Land, All That’s Left of You, and The Voice of Hind Rajab have not only received recognition at the Academy Awards but have also achieved a high level of global streaming and box office success.

Palestine 36 is the latest and perhaps most unique of these recent high-profile releases, notable in that it isn’t set in the present day. Shot and presented like a classic Hollywood historical epic, the film follows a mosaic of different characters as they try to survive the 1936–1939 Arab revolt against British colonial rule in Palestine. And yet, it’s a movie that is very much in conversation with current events. Not only is it the only feature film to shoot in Palestine in the past two years — with production often forced to shut down due to tense local conditions — but it frames the present as the latest version of a cyclical story about oppression and resistance; it’s a story full of tragedy and fear, but also one of persistence and hope.

Veteran Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s fourth feature film is her most ambitious project to date, elevated considerably by the stunning work of three cinematographers, led by the great Hélène Louvart. The widescreen photography and beautiful sweeping landscapes will feel familiar to moviegoers raised on a diet of classic historical dramas, as will composer Ben Frost’s swelling score. The natural lighting, period costuming, and even the frequent usage of colorized archival footage all make the viewer feel like they are right there in the 1930s. Considering the difficulties the team had to deal with while filming on location, the end result is an astonishing cinematic accomplishment.

" Ordinary people find a way to persist through extraordinary times. People will always struggle to be free. Palestine 36 uses history to speak this message with urgency to the people of today. "

The story has a lot of ground to cover and admirably puts the audience on a stable foundation by quickly and effectively setting the table. We enter the story at a time when the British control Palestine and are attempting to relocate Jewish settlers displaced from Europe in the period just before World War II. Angered by Zionist-leaning policies and the theft of land, the Palestinians begin to stoke the fires of rebellion. As farmers and villagers meet to discuss the news of the day, they know that war is inevitable, even if they don’t want it. They can either do nothing and watch their land be given away or destroyed, or fight back.

There is no real “main” character – the story switches perspectives between several individuals in order to present a full picture of the surrounding area. Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya) is a young man from a small farming village that works in the city, allowing him to witness the wheeling and dealing of the upper class in person only to suffer the consequences when he returns home. Khouloud (Yasmine Al Massri) is a journalist from the upper class who works to expose the injustices committed against the Palestinians, even as she finds herself at odds with her peers and even her own husband. Members of a farming village, both young and old, face escalating threats from neighboring settlers and British officials, even as they try to find whatever happiness they can in their day-to-day lives.

We see viewpoints from the British side as well, as they set up the system of oppression that is still felt to this day. An idealistic administrator (Billy Howle) is sympathetic to the rebels, and grows increasingly frustrated by the administration’s barbaric policies. Recognizable British actors like Jeremy Irons and Liam Cunningham take their turns as inept officials who see the locals as nothing other than another obstacle to be snuffed out. Orde Wingate (Robert Aramayo) is given the thankless role of the sadistic villain and is appropriately despicable as the man who carries out violence against the villagers.

Everyone seems to expect the Palestinians to remain calm and non-violent, even as their land continues to get appropriated and corrupt officials constantly work against them. Yusuf’s father is killed in an act of senseless violence and still, he is advised to remain peaceful. The death of one British soldier causes the British forces to react with disproportionate violence and cruelty, and the pot quickly boils over. The scenes of violence are swift, brutal, and devastating, eerily mirroring a similarly heartbreaking scene from No Other Land, a documentary that captured Palestinian villagers being forcibly removed from their land in the real world.

Palestine 36 is very much a story about the resistance of the Palestinian people. Some will likely find it frustrating that the Jewish communities and resistance leaders of the time are given extremely little visibility, largely mentioned in passing and only seen at a distance, the recipients of benefits being doled out by the British. The real-life situation was clearly more complex and nuanced; so is the act of creating and releasing a movie on the subject in 2026. A story with a scale this large would surely have worked better as a television miniseries, but it’s hard to say whether a project like that would have ever gotten made. As such, expect history to be covered broadly here – the main focus of the story is on the Palestinians.

Annemarie Jacir couldn’t have guessed that the production of her film would be interrupted by Hamas murdering around 1,200 Israelis in the attacks of October 7. She couldn’t have known that her film would premiere while a genocide was in progress. She set out to cover a pivotal moment in the history of a long-standing conflict and ended up living in the middle of another one. By tragic coincidence, the film’s message of cyclical violence has been amplified. A haunting scene toward the end of the film appears to stare straight at the viewer from the screen – a young child moves reluctantly to take revenge against the man who killed his father. The violence continues, seemingly forever. And yet, when things are at their bleakest, hope still remains. Ordinary people find a way to persist through extraordinary times. People will always struggle to be free. Palestine 36 uses history to speak this message with urgency to the people of today.