PALESTINE ’36 – Review by April Neale
Palestine ’36 unfolds like a cinematic journal, anchored in Yusuf’s perspective, an English-speaking rural Palestinian whose family finds itself caught in the political upheaval reshaping their homeland. Through his eyes, the film captures the tensions building in 1936 as British colonial administration and growing Zionist immigration from Europe begin to transform Palestinian society.
The title references the year when Arab resistance against British rule and large-scale Jewish immigration intensified into open revolt. Yet the historical roots of the events depicted in Palestine ’36 reach further back. In 1917, during World War I, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, a letter from the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, to Lord Rothschild, expressing support for the creation of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. When Britain later assumed control of the territory under a League of Nations Mandate, it effectively governed the region while facilitating Jewish immigration from Europe.
These policies reshaped the demographic and political landscape of a land where Muslim Arabs had long lived alongside smaller Christian and Jewish communities. As immigration increased and land ownership patterns shifted, many Palestinians experienced growing displacement and political marginalization.
For modern audiences, particularly in the United States, the complexity of this history can be difficult to grasp. America is a comparatively young nation, and many viewers encounter the Israeli-Palestinian conflict primarily through contemporary headlines rather than the deeper historical forces that have shaped the region for generations. The land itself sits at the crossroads of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each with profound historical ties and subjugation by British colonization and rule, to the same territory. Over time, those religious and national identities have firmed into competing claims that outsiders often struggle to fully understand. Palestine 36 does not attempt to resolve those tensions. Instead, it revisits a key moment when many of the dynamics that still define the conflict began to take modern form.
At the center of the film is Yusuf, played by Karim Daoud Anaya in a star-making role. He is a young man who moves between two worlds. He comes from the rural village of Al Bassa but works in Jerusalem as a driver for Amir, a prominent journalist portrayed by Dhafer L’Abidine. This connection lets the film shift between village life and the political ferment of the city.
In Al Bassa, Yusuf’s world includes Rabab, a young widow played by Yafa Bakri, her parents portrayed by Hiam Abbass and Kamel El Basha, and Rabab’s daughter Afra, played by Wardi Eilabouni. In a superb performance, Eilabouni brings a quiet, naturalistic approach to the role that highlights the generational stakes at the center of the story. Afra’s childhood unfolds against a backdrop of escalating tension that foreshadows the future awaiting her generation. She shares a close friendship with Kareem, the son of the village’s Christian priest, adding another dimension to the film’s depiction of a community shaped by overlapping religious traditions. Eilabouni is one to watch as her acting career progresses.
The village is also home to Khalid, a resistance fighter organizing opposition to British authority and the accelerating political changes around them. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Yusuf’s employer, Amir, and Amir’s wife, Khuloud, herself a journalist, represent an educated Palestinian class debating how to respond to the pressures reshaping their society.
British officials form another layer of the film’s complex ensemble. Jeremy Irons appears as the territory’s High Commissioner, projecting a composed but distant authority. Billy Howle plays his secretary Thomas, who gradually becomes uneasy about the treatment of Palestinians. Robert Aramayo portrays Captain Wingate, a zealous supporter of Zionism whose rigid ideological certainty positions him as the film’s most overt antagonist.
Although the characters themselves are fictional, the historical forces surrounding them are very real. The narrative moves steadily toward the tragic events that culminated in the massacre of the Palestinian village of Al Bassa by British forces in 1938. The film’s end credits confirm that this episode was not a dramatic invention but a historical atrocity.
What distinguishes Palestine ’36 from many historical dramas is the vision of its writer-director, Annemarie Jacir. One of the most influential voices in Palestinian cinema, Jacir first drew international attention with Wajib in 2017. With Palestine ’36, she expands her scope considerably, crafting a sweeping period drama that combines historical scale with intimate human storytelling.
Jacir structures the film in an unconventional but effective manner. Rather than building around a single linear narrative, she assembles a mosaic of lives across Palestine during the mid 1930s. Characters appear, intersect, and move through events shaped by larger historical forces. The result is less a conventional plot-driven drama than a portrait of a society experiencing major transformation.
This approach lets Jacir depict a wide cross-section of Palestinian life. Villagers, journalists, clergy, resistance fighters, colonial officials, and families all share the screen. The large ensemble cast works seamlessly together, giving the film a lived-in authenticity that prevents its characters from feeling like symbolic stand-ins for historical positions.
Visually, Palestine ’36 carries an epic dimension. Shot in widescreen by three cinematographers, including the acclaimed Hélène Louvart, the film evokes the sweeping historical canvases of classic cinema. At times, it recalls the scale and work of the late David Lean. Yet Jacir never allows spectacle to overwhelm the human dimension of the story. Period details are carefully realized, from costume and production design to the integration of archival footage from the 1930s, colorized to blend with the film’s imagery. Composer Ben Frost provides a restrained score that fuels emotional resonance without dominating the narrative.
A film dealing with such politically charged material could easily drift into overt ideological messaging. Jacir clearly approaches the subject from a specific historical perspective, yet her storytelling remains grounded in her characters’ lived experiences rather than in an abstract argument.
By the final act, the various threads begin to converge as violence escalates and the consequences of imperial policy become undeniable. The closing sequence brings several characters together in ways that slightly heighten the drama, but the moment ultimately reinforces the human cost of the political decisions shaping the region.
What gives Palestine ’36 its lasting impact is Jacir’s insistence on historical memory. The film suggests that contemporary events in Gaza and Israel cannot be understood without accepting the deeper historical processes that preceded them. Jacir makes that connection explicit in the closing credits, which include a dedication reading, “For our people in Gaza in the years the world failed you.”
With Palestine ’36, Annemarie Jacir has created a sweeping historical drama that resurrects a chapter of history often overlooked in Western narratives. The film stands as both a compelling work of cinema and a reminder that the conflicts dominating today’s headlines are rooted in events that began generations ago. And for those of us not part of this history, to step back, do some digging and research to better understand the whole picture.
