London Palestine Film Festival Returns: The 2025 Programme

Hannah Tang
2 hours ago
3 min read

Established in the late 1990s, London Palestine Film Festival has been a celebration of Palestinian art and culture for decades. Showcasing tales of nostalgia, love, grief, and loss, this two-week festival in the heart of London champions vital and emotional stories that Palestinian artists and directors seek to tell. The programme for the 2025 festival (running from the 14th to the 28th of November) is jam-packed with exciting new productions: if you’re passionate about Palestine and its rich and resilient history, you won’t want to miss out.

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Receiving a record-breaking standing ovation at Cannes of nearly 24 minutes, the highly-awaited film The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by Oscar-nominee Kaouther Ben Hania, has been met with widespread critical acclaim. The real heartbreaking story of five-year-old Hind Rajab’s killing by Israeli military forces is brought all too painfully to the big screen: Ben Hania blends real emergency call audio with reenactment footage heavily taken from direct accounts and transcripts. Taking place in a single location, Palestine Red Crescent volunteers attempt to provide comfort to Hind while she is trapped inside a car amidst gunfire, whilst everyone else in the car is gunned down. A gut-wrenching memorial to a young life barely started, The Voice of Hind Rajab will open the London Palestine Film Festival, followed by a screen talk with cast members Amer Hlehel and Motaz Malhees.

With Hasan in Gaza

This documentary follows director and screenwriter Kamal Aljafari on a journey to find the man he was imprisoned with in Gaza in 1989 - filmed in 2001, Aljafari later found this footage and turned it into the 2025 film With Hasan in Gaza. Accompanied by local guide Hasan Elboubou, he travels from the north to the south of Gaza, capturing an archive of a Palestine now lost to the past. Aljafari stated that it pays “homage to Gaza and its people, to all that was erased and that came back to me in this urgent moment of Palestinian existence, or non-existence”. The screening will also be followed by a screen talk with the Palestinian filmmaker.

Palestine 36

Submitted to the upcoming 98th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, Palestine 36, directed by Annemarie Jacir, is set in 1936 Mandatory Palestine under British colonial rule. As Palestinians begin to rise up against the weight of brutal colonial power, characters like Yusuf are caught up in the growing unrest. Jacir takes care to recount a crucial and ugly part of British history that is too easily forgotten, and a critical moment in Palestine’s past. This is fleshed out with an ensemble cast of Palestinian actors such as Hiam Abbass and Saleh Bakri, accompanied by English and Irish names like Jeremy Irons and Liam Cunningham, the latter gaining recognition for his presence onboard the Global Sumud Flotilla in 2025, which aimed to bypass the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

All That’s Left of You

Closing the festival is All That’s Left of You, a drama that follows a Palestinian family across three generations, written, produced and directed by Cherien Dabis, who also stars. A heartbreaking narrative of displacement and loss, the film begins with the 1948 Nakba and traces grandparents forced to flee from Jaffa, to their son, Salim and grandson, Noor, as they grapple with their generational trauma and humanity under occupation. When Noor is injured confronting Israeli soldiers at a protest, his mother Hanan revisits the harrowing events that led them to this moment.

These are just a few of the titles screening at London Palestine Film Festival this year. Other films include Yalla Parkour, The Palestine Exception, A State of Passion, Thank You For Banking With Us!, Song Of All Ends, Once Upon A Time in Gaza, The Mission, and more. An incredible selection of films on Palestine and from Palestine, every festival in previous years has been a glorious celebration of Palestinian art, and the 2025 festival is no exception.