Promoting Palestinian Arts Overseas at The London Palestine Film Festival
Cultural resistance plays an important role in reminding the world of our existence, our history and Palestine's bright potential future, if it were freed from occupation and apartheid.
Huzayfa Dawood, BA International Relations, 03/02/2025
The annual London Palestine Film Festival (LPFF) just finished its 2024 screenings for another successful year, showcasing Palestinian films at various cinemas across London. Giving Palestinian filmmakers and films about Palestine a major platform, the festival showcases both fresh and established talent over the course of 15 days.
“The idea of the festival came from a group of students, including myself at the time. As members of the Students Union… We used to screen the films mainly in the KLT, DLT or in classrooms” said Khaled Ziada, the founder of the LPFF.
The LPFF, which began in 1999 as an idea in the SOAS JCR, has since become one of the most respected Palestinian film festivals in the world. The importance of increased dialogue and exposure for Palestinian arts cannot be understated, the festival serves both as a form of appreciation for Palestinian film but also as a symbol of a prevailing Palestinian cultural identity amidst its oppression and attempts to erase it.
This year’s festival premiered with “A Grain of Sand”, a one-woman play directed by Elias Matar. The play focuses on a young Gazan girl, Renad, and her understanding of the world of hurt and oppression around her. The play was performed in the Barbican Centre, one of the most prominent arts institutions in London and a long-time supporter of the festival.
“Palestinians are constantly reduced to statistics in death tolls, but this play should encourage people to zoom in and consider each individual who has been dramatically and violently affected by this brutal war. “Sarah Agha, plays ‘Renad’ in A Grain of Sand.
The script features excerpts from the real testimonials of Gazan children, a powerful work that closes with a silent and slow-moving projection listing the names of the many Palestinian children that have passed because of the war on Gaza. A harrowingly poignant way to end such a play.
I had the pleasure of attending the launch of Azza El Hassan’s book “The Afterlife of Palestinian Images: Visual Remains and the Archive of Disappearance” at the Brunei Gallery as part of the festival. The book focuses on lost and confiscated Palestinian visual media, as a form of suppression from the Zionist regime. Exploring the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian art as a form of colonial violence was certainly eye-opening and emphasised the importance of conserving Palestinian art, and in turn, Palestinian identity.
The subject matter of the book was indicative of the importance of the London Palestine Film Festival as an outlet for Palestinian creatives to share their own stories and work. In a time where there are hundreds of videos documenting the death and destruction faced by those in Gaza daily, the presence of artistic expression serves as a powerful example of human perseverance and the prevailing Palestinian identity in the face of occupation.
Sara Agha, an actor, writer, and curator, who is the founder of The Arab Film Club, told us: “Cultural resistance plays an important role in reminding the world of our existence, our history and Palestine's bright potential future, if it were freed from occupation and apartheid.”
The statistics, photos and videos seen on the news can commodify Palestinian lives and their stories, whereas Palestinian film presents the individual experiences and the expression of personal perspectives from Palestinian people. A reclamation of who writes the narrative on the experiences they face, taking claim over their own stories and presenting it on screen or stage in the manner they see fit.
The London Palestine Film Festival is a vital platform to broadcast these stories on the big screen and allow for these powerful films to reach audiences from diverse backgrounds. The festival will be back in November 2025 but if you wish to get involved with Palestinian film then be sure to see a favourite from the festival ‘To a Land Unknown’ which will be in cinemas across the country from the 14th of February.
