Back Row Thoughts – The Occupied

Every year, I make it my mission to see all the shortlisted films for Documentary and International Feature, as well as the entire accepted submission list for Animated Feature. I don’t always accomplish the goal, usually due to accessibility and release issues (in fact I’ve never completed the Animated field), but I try all the same. This year, I’ll most likely only finish the International shortlist, as there are only two left of the 15 to tick off, and they’re both on Netflix. I’ll have them cleared in a couple of days.

Still, that means we have a lot to cover, as thus far I’ve only reviewed three of the semifinalists in this space. We’re just over a week away from Oscar nominations, so I need to start polishing the rest off. Thankfully, as is often the case, the films still in the competition often share common thematic ground, making batch posts a convenient outlet. We’ll handle three more right here.

As we’ve seen over the last couple years, the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories has become a lightning rod for controversy, with the crisis falling under what many consider to be genocide, including the International Criminal Court and multiple humanitarian organizations. No sane person would argue that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist or defend itself, but that doesn’t extend to blockades, forced starvation, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians and children under the guise of fighting Hamas. More and more people are becoming aware of the plight of Palestinians, and the need for an independent nation for Palestine, or at minimum some tangible improvement over the apartheid policies in place now. Israel has the right to self-determination, but most reasonable people would also assert that Palestine has that right as well, especially considering the history between the two societies.

Last year, the film industry and the Academy came to something of a crossroads, as essential stories from Gaza and the West Bank (as well as several Western documentaries) got the attention of voters, to the point that No Other Land won Documentary Feature. However, it was also extremely difficult for those films to get distribution in the United States for fear of backlash and unfounded accusations of antisemitism. The mere act of criticizing the Israeli government currently in power was enough to effectively silence these voices for most audiences.

This year, things have changed. Voters are more emboldened after Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the IDF committed more human rights violations (and more countries are openly recognizing the legitimacy of a Palestinian state), and audiences have clamored for access to those using the medium and artform of cinema to cry out for help. This has resulted in three separate films on the International Feature shortlist all dealing with Palestine. Each of these has something incredible to offer in terms of performances and pathos, but if I had to put money down, I’d wager that only one will be nominated next week, if that. That’s not to say that all of these aren’t deserving, just that the competition this year is just that strong. So it only seems appropriate to give them their due here and now.

Palestine 36 – Palestine

Coming straight from the source itself, Palestine 36 is something of a melodramatic history lesson in how Palestinians became second-class citizens in their own land, the beginning of the end of their official status as a nation. Given the proximity and the deep roots of the conflict, you would think this would be an airing of grievances against Israel, but in an unexpected twist, nearly 100% of the ire is directed towards the British, with the film serving as a meta indictment of all colonial powers.

The film is split into several interwoven plotlines, highlighting the injustice to rich and poor alike. Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya) is a young man from a farming village who gets a job in Jerusalem, working for an upper class family. He’s torn between his loyalty to his community and the chance at social mobility that his job offers him, even if he is embarrassed by his employer Amir (Dhaffer L’Abidine) looking down on his poverty. Amir works with British authorities during the Mandate Era, hoping to win concessions for the Palestinian people in the midst of the UK helping to set up a Jewish state and homeland for Europe’s displaced Jews in the leadup to World War II (the “36” in the title refers to 1936, the beginning of the Arab Revolt that lasted for three years), while his wife Khuloud (Yasmine Al Massri) writes news reports about the Palestinian struggle under a male pseudonym, as her words would not be taken seriously if readers knew a woman wrote them.

Back in the village, Hanan (Hiam Abbass from Succession; she also featured in Bye Bye Tiberias, directed by her daughter, which was Palestine’s entry to the Academy two years ago) does her best to keep her family together in spite of constant repression from British forces, particularly those partitioning farmland to Jewish settlers without consent or compensation. Her granddaughter Afra (Wardi Eliabouni) tries to make sense of it all, while her daughter Rabab (Yafa Bakri) accidentally invites more suspicion and scrutiny because her family owns an antique pistol from the 19th Century, and the British soldiers need only the thinnest pretense of “owning a weapon” as justification for mass arrests and public executions.

Finally, there’s Father Boulos (Jalal Altawil), an Orthodox priest who lives in the rural community with his son Kareem (Ward Helou). A voice for peace and pragmatism, Boulos represents an inconvenient reality for the colonialists, the fact that Christians and Muslims have lived in Palestine without major conflict. Kareem is Rabab’s best friend, and their connection is what forms one of the emotional cores of the story.

The crux of the plot is the English colonial rule and the eventual partition of native lands. Through the actions of elites, politicians, military personnel, and people who just don’t give a damn if anyone suffers, the film is a lesson in the complexities of such deep resentments, as well as a demonstration in just how easy someone can be radicalized, as guerilla tactics and tribal mentalities become convenient outlets for the aggrieved to turn to violence. It shows the foundations of a wound that still hasn’t healed nearly a century later, and which traps all involved into a cycle of hatred and bloodshed.

The biggest drawback is in some of the scripting and characterization, particularly in our cartoonish main villain, Captain Orde Wingate, played by Robert Aramayo (probably best known for Nocturnal Animals and for playing young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones). His racism and brutality are completely over the top, to the point where other mustache-twirling colonials played by Liam Cunningham and Jeremy Irons feel nuanced by comparison. Every time he commits some atrocity on screen it takes you right out of the picture thanks to his manic glee and sense of superiority. It reminded me of the colonials in RRR, which was the one part of that epic that didn’t really work for me, and even then it was tolerable because everything in that film was intentionally exaggerated to the point of delightful absurdity.

Still, for those who haven’t studied the history of the region (and admittedly I hadn’t until the latest attacks broke out after October 7) and think this is just a simple clash of cultures and religions, this might serve as a good entry point to understanding, even if the point is hammered home a bit too heavily at times. And to be clear, this is a really well-made film. There were just a couple of scenes where it bordered on self-parody.

Grade: B

The Voice of Hind Rajab – Tunisia

Kaouther Ben Hania is no stranger to the Oscars at this point, as her last two films, Four Daughters and The Man Who Sold His Skin, have been nominated, one for Documentary, the other for International. Her latest effort, The Voice of Hind Rajab, sort of combines the best parts of both of those entries – a cry for justice and a deft skill at making expert reenactments – to create what is honestly hard to call the “best” of this year’s field, but it’s arguably the most important in the competition, maybe for all of 2025.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, the film is an unflinching look at a tragedy unfolding basically in real time. Nearly two years ago, on January 29, 2024, the Israeli Defense Force seized a section of occupied Gaza City and ordered civilians to evacuate. To where? Who knows. With what resources? Not their problem. Anyway, with but a few hours’ notice, thousands were forced to flee their homes in fear for their lives, as the IDF began shelling the neighborhood and running gun tanks through the streets.

Meanwhile, at a Red Crescent call center in the West Bank (all outlets in Gaza are non-operational), workers take in emergency calls at all hours, with liaisons pulling every string possible to get the government to allow rescue vehicles into the area to help the wounded. It is then that a young girl named Hind Rajab calls in. She’s trapped in her car in that besieged neighborhood, her cousins, aunt, and uncle lying dead around her, having been gunned down in a hail of bullets as they tried to escape. A six-year-old is stuck in Hell, she’s terrified and desperate for help. It’s up to a quartet of humanitarians to keep her on the line until an ambulance can get clearance to pick her up.

Here’s the kicker, though. All this is essentially real. The four main workers – Rana, Omar, Mahdi, and Nisreen – are all played by actors (Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Amer Hlehel, and Clara Khoury, respectively), but for the most part, all they’re doing is reenacting the tense moments that the actual workers went through. This is demonstrated through some very clever editing, where social media videos are played over smartphones next to the actors’ faces as they mimic and recite each word in sync with their real-life counterparts, recreating the filming of those very videos. Also, crucially, the actual audio of the calls is used throughout. That’s actually Hind Rajab you’re listening to. Sometimes, for dramatic effect, Ben Hania has the performers read their side of the conversation slightly off pace from the recordings, as a demonstration of the emotional toll this incident had to have taken.

And yet, there’s clearly something resembling catharsis in this. Not for the circumstances, of course, but in the way that reliving trauma can help someone to heal. Think of Paul Greengrass’s United 93, and how he cast some of the actual airport staff and air traffic controllers to play themselves during the horror that was 9/11, to show just how chaotic things were and how they did their best to remain cool and work for a positive outcome that never materialized. I get the feeling something like that happened with the core ensemble here.

Because, let’s be honest, this film could easily serve as a litmus test for your basic humanity. No matter how you feel about the war, about Israel or Palestine, or just global affairs in general, if you can listen to this girl cry out for salvation and feel nothing – or worse, think that she somehow deserved to be in this situation – you might need to seriously consider professional help to find your sense of empathy. There have been a few critics who feel that the film is in bad taste for using the real audio, but if you do some digging, you’ll see that they’re from the same outlets that categorically dismiss any press or media critical of Israel as “propaganda.”

This film broke me at several points, particularly in the final moments, which I won’t spoil in case you don’t know the events surrounding this story (I certainly didn’t; it was lost in the shuffle of so many other horrible things happening in 2024). Some in the auditorium did know in advance, but that didn’t stop them gasping and sobbing throughout. When my screening was over, the lobby of the theatre felt like a group therapy session. Never before have I felt the need to ask a stranger, “Are you okay?” after watching a movie, but here I did, and I wasn’t the only one.

To even grade this picture feels like a disservice because of its import. Again, it doesn’t matter what your opinions are in regards to this crisis. There are good and bad people on all sides. But some are more bad than most, and some are just plain innocent, like the civilian families and kids caught in the crossfire. None of them asked for this, none of them committed any crimes, and yet those in power judge them guilty by existence and target them for state-sanctioned murder. These are facts. Hind Rajab’s experience is just one of tens of thousands or more that have taken place over the last two-plus years, with no real end in sight. Remember, our President wants to turn the entire Gaza Strip into a luxury resort for him and Bibi, and he claims to have “ended the war” with a ceasefire agreement that Israel has not adhered to. There are big voices trying to direct the narrative and silence dissent. You need to hear the voice of the tiniest of victims, struggling to get through, not for political gain, but to simply survive. Ben Hania has taken every precaution necessary to ensure that the focus remains squarely on that.

Grade: A

All That’s Left of You – Jordan

We end tonight with another trip through history, but this time with a much more personal feel. All That’s Left of You takes a look at the events of the Nakba (“the catastrophe”; the term Palestinians use to refer to the establishment of Israel and the ethnic cleansing and displacement of Arabs and native Palestinians in its wake) through the eyes of a family that lost everything across three generations. Directed by and starring Cherien Dabis (who also co-starred in Eagles of the Republic last year), the film is an attempt at understanding and healing in the face of decades of trauma.

Dabis plays Hanan, the wife of Salim (Saleh Bakri), who acts as the focal character for the bulk of the story. Jumping around between the 1980s, 40s, 70s, back to the 80s, and finally to the 2020s, we see how Salim’s life has been affected by various forms of repression. As a child, he and his family are forced to flee their home in Jaffa after Israel becomes an official state, with soldiers immediately moving on the family orange grove in a land grab, imprisoning Salim’s father Sharif (Adam Bakri). As a young adult raising his own family in the West Bank and working as a teacher, Salim’s grievances and rhetoric are put to the ultimate test as his now elderly father (Mohammad Bakri) carries on about revolution and revenge to his impressionable son Noor (Sanad Alkabareti) right after Israeli soldiers humiliated Salim at gunpoint in front of the boy. Later, a teenage Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman) gets caught up in a protest against the government, the consequences of which leave Salim and Hanan to make an impossible choice as a means for some good to come out of the unspeakable.

It’s a bittersweet tale, well written and crisply edited, with some fantastic performances, particularly Saleh Bakri, who has to compartmentalize years of resentment alongside pragmatism, the love of his family, and the basic instinct to survive. You can tell that every aspect of this film was made with the best of intentions, especially as Noor’s fate becomes properly contextualized.

That stands in contrast to the production itself, which was originally going to film in Palestine proper. Unfortunately, the military operations made that impossible, with shellings and personnel restrictions making it unsafe to work, forcing the shoot to be delayed and moved to places like Jordan and Cyprus. It stands as one of the greater ironies of 2025 cinema that a film meant to spread a message of peace through acts and setting differences aside for the greater good was very nearly kiboshed by war.

Still, there is a tenderness and hopefulness to the whole affair in spite of it all. There are no simple answers to this conflict, only a choice of which direction to go. As a global community and human animal, we can either steer towards peaceful resolution and a recognition of equal rights, or go for annihilation. All That’s Left of You shows that in the face of a lifetime of tragedy, there is still goodness in the world, and a culture that endures. That’s got to be worth something, right?

Grade: B+

Join the conversation in the comments below! Have you seen any of these films? Which was your favorite? Could you handle the stress of working in an emergency call center? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) and subscribe to my YouTube channel for even more content, and check out the entire BTRP Media Network at btrpmedia.com!