Movies by Palestinian filmmakers including Elia Suleiman, Annemarie Jacir and Basil Khalil will release on Netflix.
Netflix will launch a collection of 32 films either helmed by Palestinian filmmakers or about Palestinian stories, under the category ‘Palestinian Stories’ on October 14.
Featuring the works of prolific and critically-acclaimed directors like Annemarie Jacir, Mai Masri, Mahdi Fleifel, Susan Youssef, May Odeh, Farah Nabulsi and many more, the collection is a tribute to the creativity and passion of the Arab film industry as Netflix continues to invest in stories from the Arab world.
Basil Khalil’s 2015 Oscar-nominated short Ave Maria, Jacir’s Salt of this Sea and Suleiman’s Divine Intervention will be available on the streaming platform, among other titles.
Five titles by Palestinian documentary filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel will also be available this month on Netflix including A Man Returned (2016), A Drowning Man (2017), 3 Logical Exits (2020), Xenos (2014)and
Raed Andoni’s documentary Ghost Hunting and Mai Masri’s feature 3000 Nights are also among the list of films to be shown.
May Odeh, Director of The Crossing, said: “I’m glad to finally have alternative Palestinian films accessible to wide audiences through Netflix. We all in the Palestinian film industry have been eager to share our narrative with the world through our authentic creative productions as an alternative to news reporting. I can’t thank the team at Netflix and Front Row enough for the effort to make this happen.”
Spanning multiple genres and styles, the collection will showcase the depth and diversity of the Palestinian experience, exploring people’s lives, dreams, families, friendships, and love.
Nuha El Tayeb, Director, Content Acquisitions, MENAT at Netflix, added: “The diversification of our content sits close to my heart as Netflix works to become the home of Arabic cinema, a place where anyone in the world can access great Arab stories. We believe that great stories travel beyond their place of origin, are told in different languages and enjoyed by people from all walks of life and, with the Palestinian Stories collection, we hope to amplify these beautiful stories to a global audience. While these stories are distinctly and authentically Arab, the themes are quintessentially human, and will resonate with audiences across the world. That is the true beauty of storytelling.”
Other films by Palestinian filmmakers coming to Netflix are When I Saw You (by Annemarie Jacir), Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (by Mai Masri), Children of Shatila (by Mai Masri), Paradise Now (by Elia Suleiman), Chronicle of a Disappearance (by Elia Suleiman), In Vitro (by Linda Sarsour), Maradona’s Legs (by Firas Khoury), The Crossing (by Ameen Nayfeh), and Bonbone (by Rakan Mayasi).
More films will be added to the collection over the next few weeks.
Some of the films, such as Present, Pomegranate and Myrrh, and It Must Be Heaven, are already on Netflix but will now be hosted under the Palestinian Stories collection.
The majority of the titles will stream globally, and all films will include subtitles relevant to the country where they are being streamed.
