The Fifth Annual Jerusalem Arab Film Festival (JAFF)

The Jerusalem Arab Film Festival has just celebrated its fifth edition. Set up in 2020, the festival is a rare chance to celebrate Arab storytelling in increasingly restricted cultural spaces under occupation and helps foster a sense of connection for Palestinians living in the city who are for the most part physically cut off from the rest of historic Palestine and the wider Arab world. The week-long JAFF presented 31 films, including fiction features, docs, and shorts, as well as panels and talks at Al Hakawati Theater in East Jerusalem.

Founder and director Nevin Shaheen is keen to stress the importance of this space for the city’s cultural life and Palestinian identity: “We dedicate a significant part of the festival’s program to social and political cinema, with a spotlight on the suffering of the people of Gaza, and we present films that reflect the stories of prisoners and the weight of memory under occupation. Cinema here becomes a space of emotional, political, and cultural resistance.” (Festival catalogue)

Internationally, Palestinian cinema stands out: despite the impossible situation on the ground, the incredible precariouness which defines all aspects of the lives of the quasi-totality of Palestinians, filmmaking is surprisingly prolific. Bethlehem-based Film Lab Palestine presents a full programme of new shorts every year, most notably showcased at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and without fail, the cinematography is exquisite, the stories are strong and rousing, the performances nuanced and captivating. Yet, Jerusalem has so far remained on the margins of this resilient sector. Festival consultant and Tripoli Film Festival founder Elias Khlat describes Jerusalem as "largely absent from the cinematic panorama”. “Had it not been for this film festival, initiated by Nevin Shaheen, it would have been entirely missing from the map.”

(EU Partners)

The festival opened on 9 July with Passing Dreams by prominent Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi (Feature Jury Prize), a family journey through Palestine on the hunt for a homing pigeon. Other entries include We Are Inside, by Farah Kassem (Shireen Abu Akleh Jury Prize); Diaries from Lebanon, by Myriam al-Hajj; The Vanishing, by Karim Moussaoui; Aicha, by Mahdi M. Al Barsaoui (Best Feature Film); The Brink of Dreams, by Ayman al-Amir (Best Doc); The Village Next to Paradise, by Mo Harawe; Madaniya, by Mohamed Subahi (Special Mention), A Passing Day, by Rasha Shahin (Best Short).

The festival was followed by a 2-day programme rescreening festival entries in Bethlehem in collaboration with Wonder Cabinet.