(Check out Chris Reed’s Palestine ’36, movie review, the film is in theaters nationwide now Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
All European countries that were once (or still are) colonizers bear responsibility for the state of the modern world, though humans throughout history have enjoyed subjugating others ever since our species first evolved. But perhaps no nation has had as profound an effect on the universe of today as the British, on whose empire the sun at one point “never set,” so vast was the territory under the crown’s control. When domination gave way to independence movements, the United Kingdom proved especially adept at drawing lines on maps that would ensure the continuation of conflicts for generations to come.
In Palestine ’36, from writer/director Annemarie Jacir (Wajib), we see one such legacy. The movie is set in the decade before the 1948 founding of the State of Israel. As Jews from Europe arrive in growing numbers, fleeing increasingly repressive policies that would morph into the Nazi’s genocidal Holocaust, the leaders of the Zionist movement for a Jewish homeland find willing partners among the rulers of the “British Mandate” (formed in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse). This territory, originally occupied in part by Palestinians, was growing hard to manage, and given that the Europeans, including the British, had their own long history of antisemitism, why not allow it to return to Jewish rule after a 2000-year hiatus?
Jacir is much less concerned with the reasons why Jews would want or need a land of their own than she is with the effect on the indigenous population about to be displaced. In fairness, the former narrative has been told many times before. Perhaps now is the moment to understand the latter point of view, or at least a version of it.
Of the many cinematic strengths on display within Palestine ’36, perhaps the most valuable is this question of perspective, especially since Jacir does not present the Palestinian population as a monolith. Like the majority of humanity’s tribes, they are not a monolith. The elites want one thing, villagers another; some are Muslim, some are Christian; some work with the British, some with the Zionists, and others look with suspicion on all outsiders. Isn’t it time that Palestinians take charge of their affairs themselves?
Sadly, such division allows others to make decisions for you. Much as Poland disappeared at the end of the 19th century because the government collapsed from too much pushing-and-pulling from too many competing forces, so are the Palestinians also—at least as represented here—unable to muster much resistance to the British desire to replace them with Jews that the Europeans would rather see live anywhere but in Europe. Given that we know how this ends before the movie begins, the whole affair is sad to watch. Foreordained destruction is never pleasant to behold.
The cast is uniformly excellent, among them Hiam Abbas (Gaza mon amour), Yasmine Al Massri (I Was a Stranger), Saleh Bakri (All That’s Left of You), Dhafer L’Abidine (To My Son), Karim Daoud Anaya (making his debut), Robert Aramayo (Lilies Not for Me), Billy Howle (Infinite Storm), and Jeremy Irons (House of Gucci). If at times there are almost too many characters and the British villains a tad too one-dimensional, the action is taut and the dramatic stakes achingly high. In the current geopolitical climate, any conversation about Israel and Palestinians is fraught; wouldn’t you like to catch a glimpse of how we got here?
– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)
