Bringing impressive clarity to an exceedingly complicated narrative, “Palestine ’36” is set against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in Mandatory Palestine. In 1936, Arab farmers led a revolt against British colonial rule. That same year, the British appointed the Peel Commission, which in 1937 recommended partitioning the territory into Palestinian and Jewish states, with the remainder, including Jerusalem, staying under British control.
The Palestinian writer-director Annemarie Jacir (“Salt of This Sea”) captures these events from the perspectives of about a dozen major characters, including Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya), a young man from a farming village who abandons his city ambitions to join the uprising, and Khuloud (Yasmine Al Massri), an anticolonial journalist whose politically ambitious husband, Amir (Dhafer L’Abidine), takes a highhanded attitude toward her views.
Onscreen, the direct conflicts are not between Palestinians and Jewish immigrants arriving from Europe, but among the Palestinians themselves, who have major strategic disagreements, and between the Palestinians and the British, whose opinions are embodied by divergent characters: a government representative (Billy Howle) who is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause but nevertheless enforces colonial policies, and a blatantly anti-Arab military captain (Robert Aramayo). The cast also features well-known names in smaller roles: Jeremy Irons as the British high commissioner and Hiam Abbass as a villager who teaches her granddaughter (Wardi Eilabouni) about the importance of her roots.
The dynamics are rarely simply drawn, and if the film’s default mode is miniseries-expository, there are a few striking stylistic flourishes. When a radio report announces the Peel Commission’s recommendation, the camera scans the haunted faces at a dinner table. Shot mostly in Jordan — with additional filming in East Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jaffa in late 2024 — it is a film that spreads itself thin but might also have benefited from being longer.
Palestine ’36 Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.
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