Film Catalogue:

Palestinian films from/about Gaza and the Occupied Territories

I used the word “normal” in the corresponding Israeli section, to describe films which depict everyday life, situations which are perhaps not specifically Jewish, and whose themes could therefore be adapted into another cultural context. Most notably, the majority of those Israeli films contain little or no reference to Arabs. Slightly misleading for me to describe that as normal. It’s of course delusional to pretend that you can ignore what’s going on, but it’s a delusion successfully marketed to the Israeli public ever since construction of the wall began. Conversely, it is virtually impossible for a Palestinian film to contain no references to Israel, because normal life for Palestinians is the life under Israeli occupation. So there is a substantive difference in that regard at least. All that said, why fuss too much over this word? Evidentally nothing is normal in the whole situation, seen from outside, and yet this is also normal life, seen from the side of either of these two concerned parties.

Strictly and rather technically-pedantically speaking, The Stranger isn’t a Palestinian film, being about Arabs in the Golan Heights, who of course traditionally identify as Syrian rather than Palestinian. That identification has apparently been fragmenting since the Civil War started in Syria, but of course the official political status of the place in the eyes of the so-called international community remains that of 1967/1973. The film is also not directed by a Palestinian, but since it’s set in Israeli-occupied territores I’ve put it in this section.