Together, these four films imagine Palestine otherwise — through science fiction, speculative storytelling, and acts of intimate imagination — to ask what becomes possible when liberation is first rehearsed in the mind. Across visions of return, inherited memory, and futures both distant and immediate, the programme proposes imagination not as an escape from political reality, but as a necessary practice for creating it.

Screened as part of Falastin Film Festival (27—30 August).

About the films

Larissa Sansour + Søren Lind: In Vitro

In Vitro is a 2-channel Arabic-language sci-fi short filmed in black and white. It is set in the aftermath of an eco-disaster. An abandoned nuclear reactor under the biblical town of Bethlehem has been converted into an enormous orchard. Using heirloom seeds collected in the final days before the apocalypse, a group of scientists are preparing to replant the soil above.

In the hospital wing of the underground compound, the orchard’s ailing founder, 70-year-old Alia, played by Hiam Abbass, is lying in her deathbed, as 30-year-old Alia, played by Maisa Abd Elhadi, comes to visit her. Alia is born underground as part of a comprehensive cloning program and has never seen the town she’s destined to rebuild.

The talk between the two scientists soon evolves into an intimate dialogue about memory, exile and nostalgia. Central to their discussion is the intricate relationship between past, present and future, with the Bethlehem setting providing a narratively, politically and symbolically charged backdrop.

Maha Haj: Upshot

After suffering unimaginable loss, Suleiman and Lubna retreat to an isolated farm, where they tend to their crops and engage in impassioned debates about their five children’s choices – until one day a stranger arrives to reveal a harrowing truth.

Nour Ben Salem + Julien Menanteau: Palestine Islands

Twelve-year-old Maha is one of the last generation of Palestinian refugees from the Balata camp. Following the illness of her blind grandfather, she imagines a crazy project: to make him believe that the separation wall has fallen and that a return to his native land is possible. In the company of other friends from the camp, the young girl prepares a strange journey for him…

Mathijs Poppe: Ours Is A Country Of Words

In the Shatila refugee camp, established in Lebanon after the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinians during the Nakba in 1948, families in an imagined future prepare for their long awaited return to Palestine. What begins as a hopeful preparation gradually becomes a poignant reflection on the gap between their cherished dream and the harsh realities of daily life. This hybrid documentary intertwines dreams and memories with the everyday, exploring the meaning of exile and the power of imagination to sustain hope.