Hiam Abass is a prolific Palestinian actress and filmmaker who has become very popular thanks to the American series Succession and Ramy. The documentary “Bye Bye Tiberias,” directed by her daughter Lina Soualem and in which she plays the lead role, represents Palestine at the 2024 Oscars in the Best International Film category. It tells of his return home, years after leaving his city to pursue acting in France. Her return represents the reunion of four generations of women after decades of separation.
The name Abass appears in the credits of several titles in this list of series, films and documentaries available on platforms that attempt to explain or analyze the conflict between Israel and Palestine, each in their own way.
“Omar” (2013)
Available on Filmin.
One of the most famous stories on the subject, Paradise Now, nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006, is not available on platforms. But one of the following titles by its director Hany Abu-Assad is also a candidate for the Hollywood Academy Award. The young man who gives the story its title is used to dodging the bullets of the troops guarding the wall in the occupied territories. He does it to secretly visit his beloved Nadia. This stylized romantic drama is much more than a reinvention of the classic Romeo and Juliet. He’s not afraid to be realistic to the point of crudeness.
“Born in Gaza” (2014)
Available on Netflix, Filmin and Movistar Plus+.
This documentary by Hernán Zin, filmed immediately after the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2014, soberly summarizes the testimonies of Gazan teenagers who witnessed the deaths of their relatives. Or they almost died themselves.
“Fauda” (2015-)
Available on Netflix.
Although every viewer will have their own opinion on how equal the series is to the conflict, it is undoubtedly the most internationally popular story of recent years. The title refers to the Arabic word that corresponds to the term chaos. In four well-shot and written seasons, the focus is on an elite Israeli unit responsible for complex counter-terrorism missions.
“Chronicle of a Disappearance” (1996)
Available on Netflix.
“Chronicle of a Separation” (1996) by Elia Suleiman.
The renowned Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman returned to Israel to capture his loss of identity as an exile in New York in this film without a specific plot. He stood in front of the camera with his family, friends and neighbors. The result is as banal as it is bleak.
Hamas, the strategy of chaos
Available in item no.
The public broadcaster Arte has put together a selection of videos and reports on the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the Spanish catalog of its free on-demand service. One of them analyzes how the Hamas terrorist group’s military strategy has evolved over the years after the October 7, 2023 attack demonstrated a new level of sophistication in both weapons and strategy.
Inch’Allah’ (2012)
Available on Filmin.
This Canadian film offers an outside perspective. Directed by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, the film tells the story of a woman who works in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank. He helps pregnant women in a makeshift clinic, but daily checks by the Israeli army make his work difficult.
“The Lemon Trees” (2008)
Available on Filmin.
In this conflict analysis, Hiam Abass plays a drama in which a Palestinian widow witnesses how the Israeli defense minister intervenes in her lemon field. His land borders the politician’s house and his trees become an obstacle for him.
“A Weekend in Gaza” (2022)
Available on Rakuten TV and Movistar Plus+.
The theme has also given rise to dark humor, as in this recent British comedy. In it, a journalist tries to flee Israel when the spread of a virus restricts air and sea traffic. The isolated Gaza Strip suddenly becomes the safest place in the region.
“A Bottle in the Sea of Gaza” (2011)
Available on Filmin.
The naivety of a young French woman living in Jerusalem drives this story. After witnessing a suicide terrorist attack, she decides to write a letter to an imaginary Palestinian advocating for reconciliation between the two parties to the conflict. Throw the message enclosed in a bottle into the water. And within a few days he receives an answer. Hiam Abass also intervenes.
The Other’s Son (2012)
Available on Filmin.
A hackneyed soap opera plot, the baby exchange, becomes a very well-staged French drama by Lorraine Lévy about two families who obviously come from the two opposite sides. As Joseph prepares to join the Israeli army, he discovers that he is not his parents’ biological son. Born in the middle of the war, he was accidentally swapped with Yacine, the baby of a Palestinian family living in the occupied West Bank.
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