When a Film Stays
Every now and again, you encounter a film that stays with you. It lingers as the credits roll, follows you on the walk home, and quietly occupies your thoughts when you try to sleep. The reasons can vary, a horror that has you starring into the dark, or a comedy that reflects a version of connection you long for. For me, that film was Palestine 36.
The film is great. That may feel like a strange thing to say, given its subject matter, but it really is. The difference here is that this is not fiction, it’s not moustache twirling villains and super powered heroes, it’s real. These events were lived. The film’s power comes not from invention, but from its proximity to real lives and real consequences.
In recent years, we have watched horror unfold in real time right in front of us, often through headlines and social media. Palestine 36 reminds us that this is not a recent story. It is not confined to a single news cycle or generation. The history it explores stretches across lifetimes, reinforcing the idea that what we are witnessing today is part of a much longer, unresolved reality.
At its core, the film acts as a mirror. It does not instruct or sensationalise, it simply reflects the world back at us and asks us to look. There is an honesty in that approach that is difficult to sit with, but impossible to dismiss.
This is why the film stays with you. Not because it shocks, but because it reminds. It closes the distance between history and the present, between “then” and “now.” The echoes of the film exist beyond the viewing experience in the headlines we scroll past, the conversations we hesitate to have, and the discomfort that is easier to ignore than confront. Palestine 36 denies that ease.
When a film lingers in this way, it becomes more than a viewing experience. It becomes a responsibility. You carry it forward, allowing it to shape how you see, how you listen, and how you empathise.
Film is a universal language. At its best, it has the power to change. Palestine 36 did exactly that. Long after the credits faded, it remained, not as entertainment, but as a reminder. And some reminders are not meant to fade.
Palestine 36 - Directed by Annemarie Jacir
Starring - Hiam Abbass, Kamel Al Basha, Yasmine Al Massri, Jeremy Irons, Liam Cunningham, Jalal Altawil, Robert Aramayo, Saleh Bakri, Yafa Bakri, Karim Daoud Anaya, Wardi Eilabouni, Ward Helou, Billy Howle, Dhafer L’Abidine
