52 Films by Women Vol 9. 37. Palestine 36 (Director: Annemarie Jacir)
Jacir’s film begins with colourised newsreel footage (in narrow format)
of life in Palestine before expanding her screen to show the launch of
Palestine Radio, attended by representatives from the Arab and Jewish
communities. The British High Commissioner, Wauchope (Jeremy Irons) tells the
assembled crowd that the broadcaster will not disseminate political content,
rather foster cultural understanding. We don’t find out whether the station
achieved its objective. The point is to show that any discussion of politics is
suppressed, the first of many scenes that has contemporary resonance.
Pictured: Private Secretary Thomas Hopkins (Billy Howle) tries to give journalist Khuloud (Yasmine al Massri) cause for optimism in a scene from the historical drama, 'Palestine 36', written and directed by Annemarie Jacir. Still courtesy of British Film Institute / Curzon (UK)
Our initial viewpoint character is Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya), a young man
with a crimp in his collar – he put on a tie without attending to the rest of
his appearance – who works for a newspaper publisher. Expecting to find him in
his office, he meets Khuloud (Yasmine Al Massri), an influential journalist wearing
her husband’s suit who has her work published under a male pseudonym. She is
Jacir’s second viewpoint character, an articulate Palestinian who is opposed to
land seizures. Yusuf’s father would rather he work at their farm, but Yusuf prefers
his job. It puts him in proximity to the British. At a party, being taught to
pour a drink, he meets Jacir’s third viewpoint character, Thomas Hopkins (Billy
Howle), Private Secretary to the High Commissioner. Thomas is a fixer and a
pragmatist, but by the end of the film, he says he will no longer be complicit
with British foreign policy, a position that has contemporary resonance. In
2025, 300 British Civil Servants working at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and
Development Office wrote to the then Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, making the
same point. Rather than address it, their joint Permanent Under Secretaries,
Oliver Robbins and Nick Dyer, offered them the opportunity to resign as an
‘honourable’ alternative, their language being backward-looking. Thomas conveys
the message that Palestinians should register their land as a first step (it is
inferred to prevent seizure). His diametric opposite is Captain Wingate (Robert
Aramayo), a British officer whose long hair offends the locals as much as his
insensitivity. Wingate allows his officers to make lewd comments about local
women and enforces the law with disdain for Palestinians.
Jacir’s fourth viewpoint character is a young boy who assists a priest,
asking why his parishioners request forgiveness from him. ‘They don’t ask me
for forgiveness, they ask God,’ he explains. The priest is simply a conduit.
Jacir isn’t interested in presenting characters as fully rounded. They too are
conduits for a larger point about Palestinian resilience and the righteousness
of their cause.
Jacir uses the recurring motif the erection of watch towers, ensuring
that newly annexed land is not retaken by force. Wanting to discuss this with Jewish
leaders, bypassing the British, Yusuf’s father and some other men attempt to cross
into the Jewish sector by night. The watch tower guards open fire, killing
Yusuf’s father. The community’s attempt to bury him ends with mass internment.
Yusuf attempts to give family members water from the other side of barbed wire.
Wingate stops him with a violent blow.
The British are keen to quell the resistance and search for evidence of
support. In another scene of contemporary resonance, we see resistance members
board a train and demand cash and valuables from passengers. The Palestinian
passengers surrender jewellery willingly, even when one resistance member
points to a wealthy woman’s pearl earrings and says, ‘they will be useful as
well.’
Meanwhile a delegation of women appears at the High Commission. Thomas is
sent to appease them, stating that the High Commissioner is busy. The women are
insistent. In the next scene, the women plead their case. The High Commissioner
informs them that there will be an official review of the situation carried out
by the Peel Commission. This announcement gives the women some hope.
However, the land seizures continue unabated, eliciting a reaction. We
see an officer get his shoes cleaned by the young boy who appears to be doing
better than a pair of women selling vegetables. The officer turns a corner and
there’s an explosion. Much of the violence depicted in the film is shown in
part, either in the corner of the frame or through an explosion that masks
fatalities. Jacir’s camera doesn’t linger over Palestinian victims. She knows
her audience has seen far too many dead bodies.
As Jacir shows, the odds are stacked against Palestinian justice. Yusuf
attends a meeting of Palestinian elders. He is asked for his opinion and gives
it in lay terms, without nuance. He is then asked not to make any further
contribution. His employer starts publishing a column ostensibly by a
Palestinian arguing the Jewish case. Later, Khuloud discovers the payments he
received for doing so, after she pseudonymously responds to pro-Jewish
propaganda.
There is further violence, with Palestinian homes searched by the
British. They find a sheaf that formerly contained a weapon. An old pistol is
hidden away. Towards the end of the film, a young girl who buried it discovers
that it has been recovered.
Pictured: A still from the production of 'Palestine 36' (hence the mixture of period costume and contemporary attire), written and directed by Annemarie Jacir. Photo courtesy of MAD Distribution (A MAD Solutions Company).
We see an injured resistance fighter hiding in a cave. His presence is
discovered by the shoeshine boy and the girl. The fighter is fed by the
community and acknowledges the children with a watery smile.
In the most devasting act of violence committed by the British,
Palestinians – including the Priest - are loaded on to a truck that then passes
over a landmine. Yusuf joins the resistance. Thomas visits Khuloud and her
husband as they consume a meal by candlelight to inform them that the Peel
Commission did not conclude in Palestinian favour. Rather it advocated the
creation of a country for re-settled European Jews. In another scene, Thomas
attends a meeting chaired by the High Commissioner in which a counter-espionage
expert (Liam Cunningham), lately returned from India, advises on how to strike
back against Palestinian resistance fighters.
The film ends with a focus on children. The shoeshine boy flees the
scene, having put the recovered pistol to use. A young girl who initially hid
the weapon runs towards the camera. Jacir shows the seeds of resistance coming
to flower. Her film isn’t particularly subtle, but it positions actions against
Palestinians as Europe’s fault. It is an attempt to rebalance the narrative,
showing Palestinians as cultured and pluralistic. Balanced narratives may
finally help nurture solutions.
Reviewed at Curzon Westgate Canterbury (Screen Two), Kent, Thursday 6 November 2025, 14:30 screening
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