Palestine Cinema Days Poland/Bialystok 2026

On November 1-3, 2026, the Polish edition of Palestine Cinema Days will be held for the third time, an international review of Palestinian cinema, which annually brings together audiences around the world around Palestinian history, memory and experience.

Palestine Cinema Days Poland/Bialystok 2026

November 3, 2026

18:00 — SET OF SHORT FILMS

7:30 p.m. — Gaza. LETTER FROM THE PAST

Club Fama, 5 Legionowa Street

free admission

This year's edition of Palestine Cinema Days takes place again at a special moment — in connection with the 109th anniversary of the signing of the Balfour Declaration (2 November). As part of this global event, more than 1000 shows will take place around the world.

The Polish edition will take place in 14 cities across Poland. This is an opportunity to discover cinema that rarely reaches Polish distribution — from classics of world cinema, through award-winning documentaries to the latest short films that tell about Palestine from the perspective of its inhabitants.

Palestinian cinema has been more than just a record of reality for decades. It is a way of preserving memory, of telling one's story with one's own voice and image, and of recovering the right to one's own narrative. Today, in an era of fragile ceasefire, as the world slowly looks away, we are reminded of how easily Palestine can disappear from the media headlines while its people continue to suffer unimaginable losses. At this time, the need for these stories becomes especially urgent.

Palestine Cinema Days is not only a film review, but also a global act of solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian filmmakers. We will meet in cinemas and cultural spaces throughout Poland to watch films, listen to Palestinian voices and remind ourselves that cinema is more than art — it is presence, memory, a form of resistance and an act of solidarity.

More about the films

SET OF SHORT FILMS

THOSE WHO DO NOT EXIST, directed by Mustafa Abu Ali, Palestine 1974, 25′

A landmark documentary of Palestinian revolutionary cinema, filmed in Lebanese refugee camps in the late 1960s. Responding to Golda Meir's words that Palestinians “don't exist,” the film combines images of everyday life in the camps, Israeli bombing and militant training with poetic commentary and experimental editing. Abu Ali shows the Palestinian experience of exile and resistance, while inscribing it in the broader history of the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. Survived from the ruins of Beirut after 1982 - after the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the film became one of the foundations of Palestinian cinema - almost inaccessible for years, in 2003 it saw a symbolic screening in the director's native Jerusalem.

Festivals and awards: Leipzig FF (Diploma of Honor), Cartage FF (Prize of the Arab Critics Union), Media City FF, Cinéma du Réel, Valdivia IFF, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Dokufest

SILENT FLOWERS, WITNESSES dir. Theo Panagopoulos, UK 2024, 17′

When a Palestinian filmmaker living in Scotland discovers a rarely shown Scottish film archive documenting Palestinian wildflowers, he decides to recover the footage. This affectionate film essay raises questions about the role of the image as a tool of both testimony and violence, revealing the complex relationships between people and the earth.

Festivals and awards: IDFA (Best Short Film), BAFTA (Best British Short Film nomination), European Film Awards (European Short Film nomination), Sundance FF (Short Film Grand Jury Prize), Edinburgh IFF, Slamdance FF, London Short FF, Ghent IFF, Go Short (Best European Short Documentary)

WOMEN OF GAZA: FIDAA by Khaled Tuaima, Palestine 2026, 11′

The film follows the fate of Fidaa Abu Maryam, who uses storytelling as a form of psychological first aid. It gathers the testimonies of women in Gaza, transforming their voices into a living archive of feminist memory that defies erasure and allows one to regain a sense of self in the midst of destruction.

WOMEN OF GAZA: HADEEL by Aisha Adli, Palestine 2026, 6′

In displacement camps in central and southern Gaza, women spontaneously gather to share the experience of how genocide takes away their humanity and privacy, forcing them to restore their old rituals in order to regain their sense of body and dignity in the conditions of living in open tents.

WOMEN OF GAZA: MAHA by Moayed Abu Ammouneh, Palestine 2026, 4′

The story of Maha Abu Ammouneh, a displaced mother who, in the midst of genocide, becomes a mother, teacher, doctor and shelter for her children at the same time. Through imagination and play, in the midst of ruins and out of nowhere, he creates a substitute for life for them, protecting them from fear and building a safer world.

WOMEN OF GAZA: NOOR by Shorouq Al-Aila, Palestine 2026, 7′

The film follows the fate of Nour, a Palestinian journalist living in conditions of genocide, torn between reporting on the front lines of events and experiencing displacement. Living in a tent exposes the fragility of privacy, carnal and marriage, turning its everyday life into a silent struggle for dignity, one's own voice and humanity in the face of constant threat.

GAUZE. A LETTER FROM THE PAST, directed by Kamal Aljafari, Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar 2025, 106′

Three MiniDV tapes of life in the Gaza Strip from 2001 have recently been rediscovered. These recordings are now a testament to a place and time that no longer exists. What began as a 1989 search for a former prison companion -- a man lost in time and war -- led to an unexpected trip from north to south of Gaza with Hassan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown. The camera, traversing the streets and landscapes of Gaza, captures fleeting moments of everyday life — fragments of a reality that has been irreparably destroyed. The film transforms this forgotten footage into a cinematic reflection on memory, loss and the passage of time, showing Gaza from the past and a life that may never be found.

Festivals and awards: Locarno FF (Europa Cinemas Label), Toronto IFF, São Paulo IFF, BFI London FF, IDFA, Doclisboa, RIDM, DocsBarcelona, Viennale

Organization of Palestine Cinema Days Around the World: Filmlab Palestine

Organization Palestine Cinema Days Poland: collective Palestine Cinema Days Warsaw, Palmyra Films, Plan B Association, Bialystok Cultural Center — DKF GAG