written by: Annemarie Jacir
produced by: Ossama Bawardi
directed by: Annemarie Jacir
rated: not rated
runtime: 120 min.
U.S. release date: November 18, 2026 (limited); March 27, 2026 (wider); April 3, 2026 (wider)

There can’t be just one film that informs us how Palestine as we know it came to be, but “Palestine 36” is a good place to start. Veteran Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir (“Wajib,” “When I Saw You,” “Ramy”) takes us back to the titular year, recounting the Arab revolt against British colonial rule in Palestine from 1936 to 1939 during the Mandate period. Rather than focusing on one particular person or a specific side of the conflict, writer/director Jacir uses a sprawling ensemble cast to convey the complexities of the people involved. Some of whom portray historical characters specific to that period, while others are amalgams of actual people. While it may be a film set in the past, “Palestine 39” feels relevant to present-day conflicts and, hopefully, provides a better understanding of the tensions and violence seen over the years.

In 1936, the region of Palestine was known as Mandatory Palestine, a designation established by the United Kingdom as it tightened its colonial hold. While a variety of British politicians, diplomats, and military leaders are included in “Palestine 36”, they are understandably portrayed as mostly apathetic and cruel. Given the film’s title, this isn’t a surprise.

The narrative begins in March 1936, in the village of Al-Basma, with the intertitle, accompanied by: “The year you were born.” We find the village’s farmers under siege. Jewish settlers who’ve had the support of the British administration have arrived from Europe and are confiscating more and more of their land. To personalize this experience and immerse viewers in the story, Jacir focuses on a handful of villagers and a few British characters who interact with them. Although interactions with the British are usually contentious, especially with the police and military, some encounters are civil and even friendly. We see most of the British condescend to the locals, that is, when they aren’t outright brutalizing them as they focus on building a Zionist state.

Jacir’s approach is well-researched and comprehensive, including restored and colorized archival footage of historical events that coincide with the narrative that unfolds throughout the feature. When this footage is shown, the director shifts to a centered square frame, drawing viewers in and presenting montages that accentuate the story’s reality.

Varying levels of resilience and determination are evident among the Palestinian individuals Jacir presents in “Palestine 36”, offering a look at characters with similar goals. We’re introduced to the charismatic Khouloud (Yasmine Al Massri, “Quantico”), an upper-class journalist who runs a local newspaper with her significant other, editor, Amir (Dhaffer L’Abidine). Khouloud has been writing inflammatory opinion pieces for the paper under a masculine pseudonym to protect herself from reader backlash.

There’s also Yusuf (Karim David Anaya), a young man from Al-Basma with a gentle soul who works in Jerusalem and witnesses harsh realities at daily checkpoints. He struggles between two different classes, working as a driver for Amir and Khouloud, while his aging peasant father remains in the village, feeling he is needed because the neighboring villages are being confiscated. Yusuf is the one character who gets the most consistent screen time, inhabiting multiple sides within the Palestinian reality and inevitably taking up arms to defend his people and their land.

We begin to see what we suspect, something we’ve seen in so many other similar stories of colonial takeovers: the indigenous locals have no power. This point is forcefully driven when British soldiers, led by the cruel Captain Orde Wingate (Robert Aramayo, recent BAFTA winner for “I Swear”), arrive to interrogate and punish anyone they suspect of having contact with the rebel uprising. Although Aramayo plays a real-life character, broadly drawn as a Bad Guy with a greasy, out-of-place mullet. Maybe there’s not much to the role, but Aramayo’s Captain unfortunately stands out as a one-dimensional cliche.

“Palestine 36” also shows those living in the city who actually have power, yet live in denial about what’s happening to their people in the villages. Their chosen ignorance is just as hurtful, perhaps more so, than the British soldiers who raze villages. They’re more interested in maintaining comfort thanks to their partnership with the British.

“Rebellion begins with breath,” is the second intertitle, which places us in the port of Jaffa, where we meet a humble laborer named Khalid (an excellent Saleh Bakri, “The Blue Caftan”), who eventually becomes a revolutionary. His journey to radicalization comes soon after he’s beaten while demanding overtime wages, already set lower than those paid to newly arrived Jewish workers. Bakri’s stately performance offers the film some gravitas from an actor who may not be as well known to some, but will leave an impression nonetheless. Eventually, Yusuf will join Khalid’s clandestine rebel group, but it takes him a great loss of his own to do so.

Intertitles continue with “Negotiations with friends” and “Song of return,” which feature British characters more prominently as they pursue their Zionist agenda. Within this handful of antagonists, there are other broadly drawn characters beyond Aramayo’s Wingate, such as the two “name” actors who appear briefly as real-life authority figures, Jeremy Irons and Liam Cunningham. Irons appears as High Commissioner Arthur Wauchopes, who has one key scene in which he hears out a group of Palestinian women who have approached him to complain about the way their people are being treated. He compliments their determination but responds with the equivalent of “My hands are tied,” much as Pontius Pilate washed his hands of Christ, while also noting that Arabs have a history of compromise. Irons’ involvement comes across as a cameo, but even more so is Cunningham, whose one appearance as police officer Charles Tegart is even more brief. Tegart is called in as an advisor due to his expertise and experience in India, and proposes the construction of a fortified barrier (a “frontier fence” that would become known as Tegart’s Wall) to “handle terrorism in Mandatory Palestine”. His sole scene is one in which Tegart sits in on a roundtable discussion attended by British authority figures such as Wauchopes and his Secretary Thomas Hopkins (Billy Howle, a fictional role made for the movie), the latter of whom is the one British character who is written with nuance, developing a crisis of conscience due to his empathy for the Palestinian plight. Hopkins had worked closely with Khouloud, and when he decides to return home, she criticizes him for having an option that she does not.

Jacir’s sweeping historical epic is at its best when viewed through the perspective of the young children in the cast. They shouldn’t be subjected to such cruelty and violence, but, unfortunately, it happens simply because of who they and their family members are. One such child is a spirited 12-year-old girl named Afra (Wardi Eilabouni), who lives in Al-Basma with her widowed mother, Rahab (Yafa Bakri), and her resilient grandparents, Hanan (Hiam Abbass) and Abu Rabab (Kamel El Basha), and is eager to receive news from Jerusalem from her neighbor, Yusuf. She has a friend around her age, Kareem (Ward Helou), who can be found working the streets shining and repairing shoes, and they often find ways to be kids together despite the growing, volatile climate. Kareem looks up to his even-tempered father, an Orthodox priest known in the village as Father Boulos (Jalal Altawil), who teaches him the ways of emotional and physical tolerance.

Seeing their world through the eyes of these two young characters may offer a simple understanding of what occurred and perhaps a way to gain a greater understanding of what is happening in this area of the world now. Yet understanding the world through a child’s eyes is the last thing those in positions of power consider. Of all the characters, viewers will be most invested in the safety of and future for Amir and Kareem. We wish that their future isn’t the Gaza we see today and in recent years, but if anything, “Palestine 36” helps us to start understanding how it all came to be.

RATING: ***