Documentary cinema can be a powerful window into silenced realities. In the case of the Palestinian people, these windows open amid walls, occupations, and daily struggles for dignity. Here, we present three essential documentaries that, from different perspectives, portray life under Israeli occupation, the resilience of the Palestinian people, and their enduring yearning for freedom. These are films that not only inform, but also move, confront, and resist.
1. 5 Broken Cameras (2011)
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2012, Five Broken Cameras offers an intimate and powerful look at civil resistance in the West Bank village of Bil’in, where in 2005, nonviolent protests began against Israeli settlements. Emad Burnat, a farmer turned documentary filmmaker almost by necessity, records seven years of struggle, repression, and family life as his village faces the encroachment of the separation wall.
The five cameras that are destroyed during filming—some by bullets, others by tear gas—mark different chapters of his life, his community, and his growth as a witness. Through the lens of his son Gibreel’s childhood and his wife Soriya’s pleas for him to stop filming, the film humanizes a conflict often narrated with detachment. It is both a political chronicle and a deeply personal diary.
2. Yallah! Yallah! (2017)
In a corner of East Jerusalem, surrounded by walls and military checkpoints, a group of children plays soccer. “Yallah, yallah!” (“Come on, come on!”) a young man calls out as he passes by. This simple, everyday scene becomes a symbol of the spirit of this documentary, which follows seven people connected to Palestinian football.
Yallah! Yallah! sensitively portrays the challenges faced by players, coaches, and fans who love the game in a context marked by occupation. It is a film about perseverance, community, and the ability of sport to inspire hope—even in the harshest environments.
3. No Other Land (2024)
The most recent of the three, No Other Land won the Oscar for Best Documentary at the 97th Academy Awards. Co-directed by both Israelis and Palestinians—Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, and Hamdan Ballal—the film offers an insider’s view of resistance in Masafer Yatta, a region in the southern West Bank where Israeli forces have tried to forcibly evict Palestinian communities under the pretext of establishing a military training zone.
The story follows young activist and journalist Basel Adra, who has been documenting the systematic destruction of his hometown since childhood. With never-before-seen footage, family memories, and scenes of protest, the film becomes both an urgent denunciation and a visceral testimony of what it means to fight to remain on one’s land.
These three documentaries are more than just cinema—they are acts of resistance, archives of memory, and tools of visibility. In the face of a reality marked by decades of occupation and displacement, these stories help humanize a conflict too often reduced to statistics and headlines.
