Palestinian Documentary Filmmaking Takes Center Stage in Copenhagen: We Should Win an Oscar for Pretending That Everything Is Normal

The eyes and ears of attendees of the industry conference of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, were on Palestinian filmmakers with documentary projects in development on Thursday afternoon.

The latest edition of CPH:Conference during the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival looked to help people understand “how their different approaches to historic Palestine and its people can create impact and empathy both for Palestinian viewers and other audiences.”

The featured speakers were Muallem Ashtar, described as “a Jerusalemite multidisciplinary artist, performer and creator whose work combines circus, dance, and theater, is the director of the short film Land of Denied Rituals 2025; Dalia Al Kury, whose work navigates cross-genre storytelling; Kinda Kurdi, whose K² Visual Media is a U.K.-based production company specializing in long- and short-form documentary and animated content; and Tanya Marar, a Jordanian-Palestinian-Bulgarian filmmaker living in the U.K. whose work focuses on political struggles and “the narratives of oppression.” The session, entitled “Updated Reflections on Contemporary Palestinian Documentary Filmmaking,” was moderated by Mohamed Jabaly (Life Is Beautiful), a Palestinian filmmaker, producer, and artist from Gaza.

Marar discussed a project that she directed and that was produced by Ike Rofe under the working title Rage & Resist. Looking around the room from the stage, she started off by saying: “It’s really nice, actually, to see Palestinian filmmakers and films being the occupiers of a space.”

Her film focuses on Palestine Action, “a U.K.-based activist group, [focused on] direct action,” she said. “They go to the Israeli weapons manufacturers, and they smash [things] up, and they take matters into their own hands.” In 2025, the group was designated a terrorist organization in the U.K., which means, she said, that “for legal reasons I cannot support them.” But she has followed members of the group for about two and a half years, “and my film is about the two founders, Huda, an Iraqi Palestinian woman, and Richard, who is English, and a few other characters.”

Al Kuray discussed Rehearsing for Justice, which she directed and which was produced by Nefise Özkal Lorentzen and Ola Hunnes. “I staged a confrontation with an Israeli war criminal,” portrayed by an actor, in a hotel in Jordan, she explained. “Where is all this rage going to go?” was the question she wanted to explore. “Of course, it becomes explosive” as people go through a “personal justice” experience.

Al Kury offered about the Palestinian experience: “We have been trying not to fall into victim modes, but we are victims.” Her film, she shared, explores: “How do we kill fascism without becoming fascist ourselves?”

Director Kurdi brought The Last Mayor of Jerusalem, her first feature doc, to the event. Produced by Janay Boulos, it is “a story of survival and love” that explores the story of Jerusalem’s last Palestinian mayor, Rawhi Al-Khatib, she explained. The film, which mixes animation and other footage, shows him getting deported as an alleged national security threat, among other things.

Asked about key challenges she sees for Palestinian filmmakers, she said: “The onus is on us to come together and bring these stories and push for changes.”

Director Muallem’s first feature doc, Condemned to Dream, produced by Jiries Copti, follows the Ramallah theater, also called Ashtar, run by the filmmaker’s parents, described as “one of the few spaces of creativity and freedom for Palestinian youth.” A summary also reads: “As occupation erases identity and censors narratives, the film documents fragile beauty,” affirming culture as a form of resistance. “Resistance has so many forms, and culture is one of them,” Muaellem told the Copenhagen audience.

Asked about her challenges, the filmmaker said that it is “Not being censored” in Palestine and in France where she now lives.

Just days after the Oscars, Al Kury wrapped up the event with the words: “We should win an Oscar for pretending that everything is normal.”