The Boston Palestine Film Festival at Museum of Fine Arts

The Boston Palestine Film Festival (BPFF) brings Palestine-related cinema, narratives, and culture to New England audiences.

The festival features compelling and thought-provoking films, including documentaries, features, rare early works, video art pieces, and new films by emerging artists and youth. These works from directors around the world offer refreshingly honest, self-described, and independent views of Palestine and its history, culture, and geographically dispersed society. Each year, guest filmmakers from various countries and expert commentators add contextual depth to the films.

Schedule:

12:30 p.m: Mar Mama at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2023, Narrative Short, 16 min
by Majdi El Omari
Haunted by her mother’s death and recurring attacks on her city, a young girl becomes obsessed with death. Reality invades their world as her father tries to distract her by making a stop-motion film. When his efforts to shelter his daughter fail, fantasy and imagination cross paths to help her, and in that fraction of time, story frees, and a touch of mar mama’s magic saves.

The Deer’s Tooth at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2024, Narrative Short, 16 min
by Saif Hammash
A young man from a Palestinian refugee camp embarks on a perilous journey in order to fulfill his little brother’s wish: To throw his milk tooth into the sea.

An Orange From Jaffa at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2023, Narrative Short, 26 min
by Mohammed Almughanni
Mohammed, a young Palestinian, is desperately looking for a taxi to take him through an Israeli checkpoint. The driver, Farouk, discovers that Mohammed has already failed to cross the checkpoint. Trouble begins.

Palestine Islands at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2023, Narrative Short, 23 min
by Nour Ben Salem and Julien Menanteau
Maha, 12, is part of the last generation of Palestinian refugees from the Balata camp. After her blind grandfather has a medical episode, Maha imagines a crazy project: to make him believe that the Israeli separation wall has fallen and that a return to his native land is possible. With the help of her friends from the camp, the young girl imagines an adventurous trip for him.

3:00 p.m: Bye Bye Tiberias at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2023, Documentary, 82 min
by Lina Soualem
In her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, and seven sisters. Thirty years later, her filmmaker daughter Lina returns with her to the village and questions for the first time her mother’s bold choices, her chosen exile and the way the women in their family influenced both their lives. Set between past and present, Bye Bye Tiberias pieces together images of today, family footage from the nineties and historical archives to portray four generations of daring Palestinian women who keep their story and legacy alive through the strength of their bonds, despite exile, dispossession, and heartbreak.