Note: Solutions Not Sides makes no attempt to reconcile or support any of these films or TV shows, or the narratives they show, but we believe it is important to understand different side’s perspective and the way that their societies presents and understands events.
You can find Parts One & Two on our blog.
'Mo' (2022) Mohammed Amer
Mo Najjar straddles the line between two cultures, three languages and a ton of foolishness as a Palestinian refugee constantly living one step away from asylum on the path to U.S. citizenship.
Themes: comedy drama, TV show, refugee experience, Palestinian experience
'The Lesson' (2022) Deakla Keydar
Loosely based on a real-life incident, the focal argument in “The Lesson” spins wildly out of control thanks to an online post, capturing the zeitgeist of a society steeped in social media. The series explores the fiery aftermath of a politically-charged debate over racism.
Themes: drama, society, education, TV show, Israeli experience
'Farha' (2021) Darin J. Sallam
A 14-year-old girl in 1948 Palestine watches from a locked pantry as catastrophe consumes her home. A historical account of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), and one of the most talked about films from Jordan in many years.
The film is available in the UK on Netflix
Themes: war, drama, coming of age, film, Arab-Israeli wars, Palestinian experience, Nakba
'Image of Victory' (2021) Avi Nesher
"It takes the audacious step of telling the story of the Battle of Nitzanim during the War of Independence from the points of view of both the Jewish residents and soldiers at Kibbutz Nitzanim and a journalist from Cairo and the Egyptian troops with whom he is embedded." (from the Jerusalem Post)
Themes: drama, war, film, Arab-Israeli wars, anti-war, Israeli experience
'The Present' (2020) Farah Nabulsi
On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?
The film is available in the UK on Netflix
Themes: drama, short film, Palestinian experience, occupation
'Sallah Shabati' (1964) Ephraim Kishon
Sallah is a 1964 Israeli comedy film about the chaos of Israeli immigration and resettlement. The film's name, Sallah Shabati is a play on words; ostensibly a Yemenite Jewish name, it is also intended to evoke the phrase "Sorry I came".
Themes: comedy, film, Israeli experience, Israeli society
'Gaza, Mon Amour' (2020) Tarzan & Arab Nasser
"Palestine’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Academy Awards, “Gaza Mon Amour” benefits from the decades of experience brought by Dau and Abbass. Their nuanced performances build in backstories for characters who live firmly in the present, in today’s Gaza, with all the challenges and frustrations that brings." (from RogerEbert.com)
Themes: love, Gaza, Palestinian experience, Palestinian society
'Tel Aviv on Fire' (2018) Sameh Zoabi
"Can anyone make a sweet and silly comedy out of a subject as grim and intractable as the Israeli-Palestinian situation? For Sameh Zoabi, the director of “Tel Aviv on Fire” (who wrote the script with Dan Kleinman), the answer to the question is another question. What else is there?" (from The New York Times)
Themes: comedy, film, Palestinian experience, occupation, Israeli experience
'The Holy Land & Us' (2023) BBC, Rob Rinder and Sarah Agha
Personal, profound and deeply moving. Rob Rinder and Sarah Agha explore how their family's histories, and others, were changed forever by the 1948 founding of the state of Israel.
The Holy Land & Us on BBC iPlayer
Themes: documentary, TV show, history, Nakba, Palestinian experience, Israeli experience, Jewish experience, refugee experience, the Holocaust
'Wajib' (2018) Annemarie Jacir
"Jacir continues to impress with this poignant, bittersweet comedy of estrangement and identity, in which a traditional father and his hipster son travel around Nazareth, fulfilling an ancient ritual while arguing about the state of the modern world. Dry humour and understated heartbreak intersect as Jacir deftly blends the personal and the political in deceptively effortless fashion." (From The Guardian)
The film is available in the UK on Mubi
Themes: comedy, drama, film, family, Palestinian experience, occupation
'Remember Baghdad' (2017) Fiona Murphy
Fiona Murphy’s absorbing documentary focuses on members of London’s Iraqi Jewish community to tell a little-known slice of Middle Eastern history: the Jews of Iraq, their life and subsequent need to leave.
The film is available in the UK on Netflix
Themes: documentary, film, Jewish experience, Mizrahi, refugees
'Tantura' (2022) Alon Swarz
"Schwarz’s latest film, Tantura, provocatively draws upon his experience of making sense of disparate facts. Tantura wades into that murky period of Israeli history where, under machinegun fire from without and within, the modern state was birthed." (From a great interview in POV Magazine)
Themes: documentary, film, Nakba, Israeli War of Indepedence, Palestinian experience, Arab-Israeli wars
'The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem' (2022) Oded Davidoff
In 1919 Jerusalem, housecleaner Rosa weds a shopkeeper who loves another woman, a choice that impacts her dynamic with eldest daughter Luna for decades.
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem on IMDB
The series is available in the UK on Netflix
Themes: TV show, Melodrama, Israeli history, Israeli experience, love