Before 1948 and the Nakba, there was 1936 and the Great Revolt. Before Zionist colonialism in Palestine, there was British imperialism in Palestine. So why don’t we know this history? And what can an acclaimed new movie, featuring some big Hollywood names, teach us about it?
“You cannot understand 1948 without understanding 1936,” says Palestinian writer, director, and producer Annemarie Jacir, whose latest film, ‘Palestine 36’, explores the 1936-39 revolt against British rule in Palestine.“Everything the Israeli army is doing, they're not even original in it.”
Jacir joins Mehdi alongside Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, one of the film’s lead actors who also starred as Marcia Roy in HBO’s award-winning comedy-drama series Succession. For Abbass, her approach to very political movies like this one is very simple and direct: “Artists, we're not here to give a political solution to anything, but we're here to say, ‘hey, mind you, let's look together. Let's decide together.’”
‘Palestine 36’ was Jacir’s most difficult project to date. The October 7 attack forced the director to relocate her cast and crew from Palestine to Jordan for filming after much of the preparation on the ground had already been done; shooting had to be stopped several times due to missile exchanges between Israel and Iran, all while the killings in Gaza escalated. “Everything just became darker and darker,” Jacir tells Mehdi.
The film, which received an epic ovation from the audience at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last weekend, is Palestine's official submission to the Oscars for 2026, and also stars Jeremy Irons and Liam Cunningham. “I think by these stories, we might just give a little bit of a light on the past of Palestine for people to understand really the history of Palestine, and to be able to judge themselves the present of Palestine today,” Abbass says.
Paid subscribers can watch the full discussion above, in which Abbas and Jacir also discuss how attitudes towards the Israel-Palestine issue in Hollywood and among the wider public have changed in recent years. Free subscribers can watch a three-minute preview.
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