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“Stories of Palestine” comprises award-winning works by critically acclaimed Palestinian filmmakers, including directors such as Elia Suleiman, Annemarie Jacir, and Basil Khalil. Each film tells a unique story, showcasing different aspects of Palestinian life and promoting the image of this Middle Eastern country to the world.
"There are movies that will make you laugh, and there are movies that will make you cry."
Nuha El Tayeb, Netflix's Head of Content Acquisition for Turkey, the Middle East, and North America, said: “Our content diversification is part of our effort to make Netflix the home of Arab cinema, a place where anyone in the world can access the amazing stories of Arabs.”
“These stories portray Arabia clearly and authentically, so themes related to its people will resonate greatly with audiences worldwide. This is the true beauty of visual storytelling,” shared Nuha El Tayeb. Palestine is one of the countries within the Arab League and belongs to the Arab culture in general.
A scene from Basil Khalil's film "Ave Maria".
Ameen Nayfeh, a young Palestinian director, said he felt incredibly proud to have created a film about his own struggle to cross an Israeli military checkpoint to visit his dying grandfather. He didn't expect his short film, "The Crossing," to attract such a large audience as soon as Netflix released its collection of Palestinian films.
In an interview with Reuters, Nayfeh shared: "That's why we make films; we want our story to spread, we want people to know about it."
Among the films screened in the collection are several outstanding short films such as Basil Khalil's "Ave Maria," which was nominated for an Oscar in 2015, Annemarie Jacir's "Salt of this Sea," and Elia Suleiman's "Divine Intervention," which won an award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
"Salt of this Sea" tells the story of Soraya, a 28-year-old Palestinian-American woman, on her journey back to Palestine to be reunited with her grandfather.
"Divine Intervention" is a satirical film about Palestinian couples separated by an Israeli checkpoint.
“Ave Maria” is a humorous short film about five Palestinian nuns in the West Bank whose quiet and peaceful lives are disrupted when an Israeli settler family drives a car into the convent wall.
