1936. Tensions are rising across Mandatory Palestine, as the grip of British colonial forces tightens. Rising unemployment, heavy Jewish immigration, and an infectious sense of frustration trigger a national general strike and acts of violence that change a nation.
Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s latest offering, Palestine 36, following When I Saw You (2012) and Wajib (2017), shines a light on an overlooked chapter of British history: its occupation of Palestine and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt.
Like many white, British people, I don’t know a lot about the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict or its historical roots. Very little is taught in schools, and, more often than not, what you find online needs to be taken with a pinch of salt big enough to poison you. So when I was invited to a screening of Palestine 36 at Broadway, as part of the second annual Nottingham Palestine Film Festival, I was keen to go with an open mind.
The film was the official Palestinian submission for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards (2026), and it’s easy to see why. Its promo poster describes it as ‘grand in scale, ambitious in storytelling’, and I can’t say I disagree. It has the beautiful cinematography, moving score and impressively large, international cast you might expect from a true historical epic – but all achieved on a less-than-Hollywood budget.
As her biggest project to date, Jacir’s passion shines through. It’s clear she has a lot to say (there’s a lot to be said). But is it too much? Is it even possible to capture so many years of complex political, economic and social issues, and their impact across multiple communities and nations, in the length of a single feature film?
That challenge of scale ultimately leads Jacir to put a focus on people, navigating the nuanced, divided climate of 1936–1939 through the eyes of a cross-section of different characters.
Yusuf, a young man pulled between loyalty to his family and rural village life, and opportunities to ‘better himself’ amidst the wealthy families of Jerusalem. Khouloud, an ambitious and fiercely smart female journalist, still has to write her anti-establishment papers under a male pen name. Her husband Amir, who humours his wife’s nationalist beliefs and professes to agree, whilst simultaneously holding parties attended by British officers and taking money from the Zionist Commission. Captain Wingate, a long-haired, smirking bearer of violent, unrelenting British dominance.
The characterisation is broad, the main players simplistic in their opposition. In fact, opposition is used throughout the film to reinforce conflict, whether it’s the rich elite drinking champagne whilst struggling villagers see their crops burned; Christian religious pomp vs quiet Muslim prayer; moving from Jerusalem’s bustling city energy to the isolation of rural communities; the politics around boardroom tables vs how that politics plays out in reality.
But what could almost read as a caricature actually feels much deeper. It’s a testament to the performances from an impressive cast, including Jeremy Irons, Yasmine Al Massri, Hiam Abbass, Billy Howle and ‘I Swear’ BAFTA winner Robert Aramayo.
That focus on humanity is what really gives the film its power; it’s the real stories that stay with you long after the credits have finished rolling.
Many of the events and people, including the massacre in the village of al-Bassa, the busload of villagers forced to drive over a live land mine, and the character of Captain Wingate, are all based on reality. A clip of the real radio broadcast announcing the report of the Peel Commission, which recommended partition and sparked further violence, was used. And archival footage, sensitively restored and colourised, was integrated to quite a moving effect.
Nils Åstrand, Producer of Palestine 36, said: “From the very beginning, we were committed to telling the story with absolute integrity. We worked closely with historical advisers, drew on archival material, and used transcripts from real news reports to portray events as faithfully and accurately as possible. We didn’t want it to feel like a lecture or a history lesson, but something deeply human and emotionally immediate.”
And the team achieved that. It’s the details, and the attention paid to the impact of political games of chess on real people, that ground the sprawling expanse of a conflict that seems impossible to pin down. Now more than ever.
In Autumn 2023, Jacir was in the West Bank. With a set built, cast and crew on location, she was one week away from filming and beginning a project that was already many years in the planning.
Curzon
Then came October 7th. In attacks that sent shockwaves across the world, Hamas murdered around 1,200 Israelis and abducted hundreds more, beginning a new wave of violence that would, once again, put an end to any prospect of Israeli-Palestinian peace in Gaza.
Jacir was forced to flee Palestine and film largely in Jordan, whilst navigating delays and collective grief. (Many of the cast and crew either lived in Palestine or had friends and family there). She went from making a film about the past to being confronted by the grim reality of another genocide in real time.
It begs the question: in the 90 years since the story at the heart of Jacir’s film, what’s changed?
Following the screening, a panel discussion chaired by Mark Morgan of Nottingham Palestine Film Festival featured Nils Åstrand (Producer of Palestine 36), Sofia Asir (Palestinian British actor who portrays Dyala in the film), and Victor Kattan (Assistant Professor in Public International Law at the University of Nottingham School of Law and Legal Adviser to the Britain Owes Palestine campaign) dug into some of the historical events depicted in the film, Britain’s legal responsibilities during the Mandate period, and why those questions remain relevant today.
And I got the chance to sit down with Victor to talk about the intersection between cinema and activism.
It begs the question: in the 90 years since the story at the heart of Jacir’s film, what’s changed?
What's one lesson we should take away from watching Palestine 36?
The beauty of films like Palestine 36 is that it gives visual expression to the work that we do in a format that nearly all people can relate to. It doesn’t involve as much effort to watch a film, which is an enjoyable experience for many, as opposed to reading hundreds of dry legal texts.
Palestine 36 depicts a historical period that our petition identifies as an era of systemic repression where Britain enacted emergency legislation that normalised collective punishment and arbitrary detention in Palestine. This repression continues to the present, and these laws are still on the Israeli statute books. This was a period of repression that scholars have described as rule by law, not rule of law. As the film illustrates, the period between 1936 and 1939 was a time of statutory martial law where power was devolved to the military with minimum judicial oversight. This was when our lead petitioner, Munib Al Masri, witnessed punitive British Army searches as a child.
The most critical lesson that Palestine 36 offers is that it reminds us that the systemic and institutionalised violence in Palestine is not an accidental tragedy but a consequence of specific colonial policies. We cannot even begin to make sense of the present without acknowledging Britain’s distinct responsibility for the crisis facing us today and its historical roots.
What role do art and cinema play in helping people of all cultures to express, understand, process and talk about historical events such as the Palestine conflict?
While our legal petition provides the legal-historical analysis required to achieve state accountability, art and cinema provide the human dimension to accompany that evidence. The petition details the specific material and moral damage caused to the Palestinian people, and a film like Palestine 36 allows an audience to feel the weight of that damage through the eyes of those who lived it.
Curzon
With censorship still an issue and the film unable to secure a mainstream U.S. distributor, why is it so important that we make space for films like Palestine 36 and the dialogues around them?
Censorship and the subsequent suppression of discussions around historical wrongs often serve to keep Britain’s colonial history overlooked or minimised. I don’t think it was by chance that Palestine 36 was not nominated for a BAFTA. We still do not teach British history in Palestine in our schools – it’s not in the national curriculum. For many people, watching Palestine 36 will be the first time they will learn of Britain’s repressive policies in Palestine. When we fail to make space for these narratives, we allow the legal and moral responsibility of the state to remain unaddressed, furthering grievances, which impacts our ability to credibly address what is happening today.
Our campaign argues that Britain’s prolonged occupation and colonial policies after the 1917 Balfour Declaration enabled a demographic and political transformation during which Palestine was transformed from a predominantly Palestinian Arab society into a Jewish one through mass Jewish immigration that bypassed the wishes of the existing population, in a clear violation of the League of Nations Covenant. Stories like Palestine 36 are essential as a means to help people realise what Britain did in Palestine, and the need for a formal acknowledgement and apology from the UK Government if we are to move forward constructively.
Censorship and the subsequent suppression of discussions around historical wrongs often serve to keep Britain’s colonial history overlooked or minimised. I don’t think it was by chance that Palestine 36 was not nominated for a BAFTA.
Social media can be a very loud and conflicting place. Where would you recommend people go to get unbiased, factual resources?
While social media can be a powerful source of information to spread awareness, it also prioritises brevity, emotiveness and often misinformation over facts. Working on our campaign's 400-page legal petition reinforced my belief that we must always approach Britain’s history in Palestine with a critical eye and a questioning mindset, and that is something social media does not always facilitate. For me, this requires looking directly at what the record is telling us and asking what happened, why it happened, whose voices were silenced, and whose were prioritised.
I don’t rely on a single media source but obtain my information from a range of sources, including legacy and social media. The United Nations Information System on the Palestine Question, the United Nations Digital Library System, the National Archives, on-the-ground reporting from Palestine, news sources such as Electronic Intifada, Jadaliyya, Middle East Eye, the New Arab, al-Shabaka… I even read the “right-wing” media, such as the Telegraph/Times, as well as Jewish news sources (Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Chronicle), to keep an eye on things. Only by reading widely and broadly do you notice the nuances in what is being emphasised or suppressed.
Nottingham Palestine Film Festival: https://nottspff.uk/
Britain Owes Palestine: https://www.britainowespalestine.org/
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