Nominated for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, No Other Land is a film created by a Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist, documenting the Israeli army’s invasion of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta, in the West Bank—a long-disputed territory between the Palestinian people and the Zionist movement. Filmed between 2019 and 2023, the documentary bears witness to Israel’s abuses, including the forced displacement of Palestinian residents and the ruthless destruction of their homes.
Directed by the legendary Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint, Exodus (1960) is based on Leon Uris’s 1958 novel. The film tells the story of Jewish Holocaust survivors traveling to Palestine to establish the state of Israel. While well-directed and acted, the film has been labeled a "Zionist epic" as it largely reinforces Israel’s perspective on the conflict, simplifying historical complexities in a way that can be seen as propaganda. However, understanding this narrative is crucial to grasp how Israel has framed its stance on the Palestinian issue.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is Tantura, a 2022 documentary that, while not particularly innovative in style, tackles a significant issue: the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Israeli army in the town of the same name in 1948. The village was destroyed after approximately 250 unarmed civilians were massacred, and the surviving residents were forced into exile. Through testimonies from both perpetrators and witnesses, the documentary exposes Israel’s genocidal mechanisms and how "historical truth" is often shaped by systematic erasure.
Featuring highly stylized animation, Waltz with Bashir is an Ari Folman film chronicling his experiences as a soldier in the Israeli army, where he witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacre during the 1982 Lebanon War. In this event, thousands of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered by the Lebanese Phalange with Israeli backing. The film has been criticized for embodying the "shoot and cry" trope—media in which soldiers, often Israeli, express remorse for their actions. However, one notable aspect of the movie is its emphasis on the importance of memory—both individual and collective.
Released in 2020, Mayor follows two years (2017-2019) in the life of Musa Hadid, the mayor of Ramallah, the de facto capital of Palestine. The documentary provides a fresh and much-needed perspective on Palestinian political and social life, breaking away from mainstream media narratives. It depicts a leader attempting to do his job and uphold his people’s dignity amid Israeli occupation and the inefficiency of international bureaucracy.