Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 debuted at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this fall to a 15-minute standing ovation — the longest in the festival’s history. The historical drama is the only feature film shot in Gaza within the past two years, as Israeli missiles flew overhead.

Critics have hailed Palestine 36 as a stirring and deeply human depiction of a 1936 rebellion against British colonial rule, centered on the story of Yusuf, a young man whose village is threatened by displacement.

In an interview with the Enlightenment Podcast , Jacir connected the 1930s uprising to today’s movement for Palestinian freedom and human rights. “There’s the story of trauma and how trauma passes from generation to generation,” she said, “but there’s also the story of resistance and how we’re r

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