REEL PALESTINE 8TH EDITION

Bayt Presents the 8th Edition of Reel Palestine Film Festival 

Reel Palestine returns for its eighth edition from January 28th – February 6th, 2022, collaborating with our long-term partner Cinema Akil, the GCC’s first arthouse cinema. The festival will premiere films from Palestine and its diaspora by award-winning international directors and up and coming first-time filmmakers, featuring intimate stories of exile, resistance, and the love that encapsulates the human experience when identifying with separation and restrictions to survive and thrive. 

In the ever-changing transient state of the world with the presence of disputes, forced displacement is a present reality for millions in today’s world. This consciously or subconsciously causes people to construct a dreamlike landscape of a home or a place of belonging through heritage and history explored in imagery, stories of nostalgia, and family relations.

How do people who have been stationed away from their ancestral land dream up an identity by constructing a mental landscape to pursue a sense of belonging through art, film, and heritage traditions?

The experience of a fragmented identity caught amid a complex battle is a surreal experience that many people, Palestinian or not, can relate to.

Reel Palestine is a community-driven and volunteer-based initiative that’s been growing year on year as a result of the labor of love driven by the community for sharing stories and heritage primarily through film. The 8th edition, presented by Bayt, presents a diverse offering of films and events in music, photography, workshops and talks. We are also honored to welcome a larger number of artisans, makers and creators at the Reel Palestine Souq, offering a wide range of colourful crafts, literature, fashion, spices and more!