Annemarie Jacir’s Historical Epic ‘Palestine 36’ Readies for Toronto Debut: Watch Clip Here (EXCLUSIVE)

The first clip of Annemarie Jacir’s “Palestine 36” has been released as the film prepares for its world premiere at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

The historical epic from Jacir (“Salt of the Sea,” “When I Saw You,” “Wajib”) is set amid the rising tensions of Palestinian uprising against Britain’s decades-long dominion of the region.

The story follows a young man who gets caught up in political upheaval as tensions rise in Jerusalem and his village amid British crackdowns prompted by the arrival of Jewish immigrants escaping antisemitism in Europe. “History is relentless,” reads the synopsis, which adds that “all sides spiral towards inevitable collision in a decisive moment for the British Empire and the future of the entire region.”

The film stars Hiam Abbas, Jeremy Irons, Karim Daoud Anaya, Saleh Bakri (“Blue Caftan”), Robert Aramayo (“The Lord of the RIngs: The Rings of Power,” TIFF title “I Swear”), Billy Howle (“The Perfect Couple”), Liam Cunningham (“Game of Thrones”), Dafer L’Abidine (“Children of Men”) and Yasmine Al-Massri (“I Was a Stranger”).

Watch the clip here: https://youtu.be/rSCmYKc07E8

The Palestine-U.K.-France-Denmark-Qatar-Saudi-Jordan feature was produced by Ossama Bawardi, Cat Villiers, Azzam Fakhreddin, Hani Farsi, Nils Åstrand, Olivier Barbier, Nathanaël Karmitz, Katrin Pors and Hamza Ali; propduction companies are Philistine Films, Autonomous, Corniche Media, MK Prods. And Snowglobe

Watermelon Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights; France’s MK2 films and Lucky Number are co-representing international rights.

Jacir’s films aims to examine the early roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the film looks to illuminate the “human cost of empire and the enduring price of resistance, tracing the origins of a historic movement that reshaped the region and continues to reverberate to this day,” according to press materials.

Jacir is founder of Philistine Films, a production company based in Palestine and Jordan, dedicated to supporting independent cinema from the region.