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Reel Palestine returns to Cinema Akil for its 12th edition
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Reel Palestine returns to Cinema Akil this January for its 12th edition, continuing its long presence in the region’s independent film calendar. Running from 23 January to 1 February, the festival brings together fiction, documentary and short films that reflect Palestinian life across different geographies, histories and forms.
Rather than positioning cinema as spectacle, Reel Palestine treats film as a shared space. A place where memory, lived experience and storytelling meet an audience willing to sit with complexity. This year’s programme includes 11 feature-length films and a slate of short works, alongside talks and public-facing events. Two of the films in the programme have been Academy Award–shortlisted, situating the selection within a wider global conversation without losing its grounding.
Feature films and documentaries
The festival opens with Once Upon a Time in Gaza by Arab and Tarzan Nasser, screening in the UAE for the first time. Set in Gaza in 2007, the film follows two friends whose small-scale hustle unfolds against a backdrop of siege, power and survival. The opening screening will be followed by a conversation with actor Majd Eid.
Filmmaker Annemarie Jacir is a central presence in this year’s edition and will attend the festival in person. Her latest feature, Palestine 36, returns to British Mandate Palestine, following a young man caught between village life and the pull of Jerusalem as political tensions rise. The programme also includes a screening of Wajib, presented in tribute to the late Mohammad Bakri, whose contribution to Palestinian cinema remains foundational as well as a masterclass by Jacir herself.
Documentaries make up a significant portion of the programme and are often built around closeness rather than distance. Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk unfolds through video calls between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and Gaza-based photojournalist Fatma Hassona, forming an intimate record shaped by trust and immediacy. The Clown of Gaza follows a performer bringing moments of relief to children amid destruction, while Palestine Comedy Club traces stand-up comedians navigating humour under restriction. Cherien Dabis’ All That’s Left of You, one of the Academy Award–shortlisted films, centres intergenerational memory, unfolding in the moments leading up to a protest in the West Bank.
Short film programme
The short film programmes focus on intimate stories told at a smaller scale, moving between drama and documentary. Films like Born A Celebrity by Luay Awad explore questions of privacy and selfhood within close-knit communities, while Waseem Khair’s Gaza Bride 17 traces grief and memory through the quiet aftermath of loss.
Elsewhere, BAISANOS by Andrés and Francisca Khamis Giacoman follows supporters of Club Deportivo Palestino in Chile, using football as a way into conversations around identity and distance. The programme also includes I’m Glad You’re Dead Now by Tawfeek Barhom, where two brothers return to their childhood island to confront unresolved histories. Together, the shorts offer a layered view of Palestinian life that moves between the personal and the diasporic.
Reel Palestine Souk
Taking place across two weekends, the Reel Palestine Souk brings together around 50 Palestinian designers, artisans, collectives and social enterprises, with a rotating group of vendors set around Cinema Akil and KAVE at Alserkal Avenue. The selection spans fashion, craft, jewellery, homeware, books, art and food, foregrounding contemporary Palestinian cultural production.
The souk will also be accompanied by curated exhibition of Palestinian National Team football shirts from the collection of Rakan Al-Hassoun, extending the festival beyond the screenings.
A visual identity of return
The visual identity for this edition is created by Palestinian artist Rami Afifi. Drawing from a lineage of Arabic illustration that predates globalised design aesthetics, the artwork references figures such as Helmi El Touni, Mohieddine Ellabbad and Naji Al-Ali. Scenes of Palestinian daily life appear throughout the visuals, from labour and music to food, landscape and craft.
Rather than functioning as nostalgia, the artwork acts as a living archive, reflecting the festival’s role as a space where culture is actively carried forward.
Partners
The 12th edition of Reel Palestine is presented by Bayt, in partnership with Alserkal Avenue, with continued support from Advanced Media, Bristol, Bark & Berg, Hikmat Palestine and The Giving Movement. Communications for the festival are supported by Soul Communications, with media partnership by Dazed Middle East. Together, these collaborators help sustain Reel Palestine as a platform for Palestinian cinema rooted in community and continuity.
Reel Palestine runs from 23 January to 1 February at Cinema Akil. Get your tickets here.