Some very exciting films about Palestine are coming to cinemas and streaming this fall. Documentaries about doctors trying to save as many people as they can, about journalists who stayed in northern Gaza when the Israeli military was evacuating everyone else, and about the ways that Israel is killing Palestinians with the latest AI-assisted technology. Go to the movie theater in 2026 to get invaluable firsthand looks at what’s happening in Palestine. Find a film that illuminates the truth. Support these artists and these stories.
American Doctor (now showing)
How do you care for people in a place where the Israelis routinely bomb hospitals, aid supplies are cut off, and basic resources like sterile pads and painkillers are scarce? The film American Doctor, directed by former Al Jazeera documentarian Poh Si Teng, chronicles three American surgeons who head to Gaza and their efforts to help from 2024 to 2025. The American segments are shot by Teng, while the Gaza portions are shot by local cinematographers, Ibrahim Al Otla and Christopher Renteria.
Teng likens the film to American medical dramas like The Pitt or E.R., except for the fact that it’s all 100% real. And doctors in the Gaza Strip are plagued by some frightening and unique medical crises. One of the film’s subjects, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, told Democracy Now! that “Almost everyone gets an infection of some kind. … Every surgical incision gets infected, because everyone’s malnourished, the hospital is filthy and overcrowded, and there are very few antibiotics available. … These people have been exposed to so much antibiotics that there’s an enormous amount of antibiotic resistance in Gaza relative to anywhere else.”
You can watch the documentary now in select cinemas across the U.S.
Britain’s Gaza Secrets Exposed (now showing)
This British television documentary, which aired on September 24, is based on unpublished government documents. It asserts that Britain’s silence and complicity with Israel during its genocide in Palestine has been going on for decades. Britain had fully understood that Israel was committing war crimes and continued supporting them regardless.
The film is executive-produced by Ben de Pear, a former editor of Channel 4 news who also produced other films about Gaza, including Gaza: Doctors Under Attack. The producer told Democracy Now!, “Our film focuses on the process by which the foreign office, our government, assesses Israel’s conducts, its military behavior, in Gaza, because not only are they an ally of the United Kingdom, but we also sell them weapons. And we are the signatory of a number of international treaties, including the Genocide Convention, which means if there is even a risk of a genocide taking place, you are meant to take action. Not aid it, not sell weapons.”
You can watch the documentary online via Channel 4.
Israel-Gaza: Into the Abyss (now showing)
Less a film about Palestine and more an awkwardly evenhanded film about the current Israel-Palestine conflict, Israel-Gaza: Into the Abyss is a British ITV1 original documentary by Robin Barnwell that spends its first third retreading the October 7 attack by Hamas from 2023. The documentary then spends its remaining runtime delving into the ongoing genocide in Gaza that had been unfolding on the world stage.
According to one review in The Guardian, “It does a fine job of conveying the scale of the horror and terror inflicted on Israel on 7 October 2023. … But it doesn’t manage the same for the 11 months of attacks on Gaza by the Israeli military that have followed.” The critic, Jack Seale, concludes that there are far better documentaries about the genocide out there, particularly ones that are more willing than Into the Abyss to actually call it what it is.
You can watch the documentary online via ITVx.
NAZA (premiering October 9)
One of the most anticipated documentaries of the year is NAZA, short for Nezek Agavi, a term that the Israeli military uses to refer to civilians it kills whom it considers collateral damage. Helmed by the directing duo responsible for the Oscar-winning No Other Land and produced by The Guardian, the film was shot in secret on rooftops in Israel, documenting the campaign of terror the Israeli army is waging on the people of Palestine and the various methods they use for killing Palestinians, from AI-assisted targeting to the illegal hacking of civilians’ cellphones. Over 20 whistleblowers involved with the Israeli army also appear in the film, albeit anonymously, to testify against Israel’s actions.
“Intelligence officers know the most,” the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, told The Guardian. “They listen to the cellphones. They know the house they are bombing is full of children. They can hear babies crying. They still order another strike.” The film premiered at Venice, where it earned rave reviews.
You can watch NAZA theatrically across the U.S. on October 9. It rolls out to the rest of the world in October as well. After its theatrical release, The Guardian will put the film online for free.
Night Flower: Inside AIPAC’s Fight for Influence (premiering October 20)
Night Flower doesn’t take place inside Palestine or Israel like the rest of these films, but this documentary from the Substack-based independent media company Zeteo has everything to do with what’s going on in Gaza. The hourlong film explores AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group whose tendrils have reached far into American politics on both sides of the aisle to influence American policy on Israel.
The film is directed by Dion Nissenbaum, who helmed Zeteo’s previous documentary, Who Killed Shireen? The film has not premiered yet, but you can read about it and watch the trailer on Zeteo’s Substack.
The film premieres on October 20 in Chicago, with a digital release to Zeteo subscribers to follow.
Citizen Osama (at film festivals)
Ahmed Hassouna’s 69-minute documentary Citizen Osama follows Osama Al-Ashi, a war journalist and Hassouna’s coworker, a man who stayed in the north of Gaza while the Palestinian citizens were being ushered south by the Israeli army. Beginning with Osama’s son’s birth and following the journalist for a year, the film shows the horrifying daily life of the Palestinians in Gaza trying to survive occupation, constant bombings, and famine as well as the lives of the dozens of journalists who, when things got hardest, decided to stay and document the suffering in the north of the Gaza Strip. This is Palestinian cinema by Palestinians.
After opening at the Venice Film Festival in early September, the film was chosen by Palestine as its official Academy Awards submission.
The film is currently showing at film festivals, with no domestic or international distributor yet attached. Since it will be submitted to the Oscars for the 2027 awards, expect a limited domestic release before the end of January 2027. The film will next be playing October 18 at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Conversation with the Sea (at film festivals)
In Jerusalem, Kamal has to pay a debt. A large social security debt allegedly belonging to his son, Wael. The catch is, Wael drowned in the Red Sea decades ago. There’s no record of it, though, leaving the father to unravel the mysteries of his long-dead son’s life. The rare modern fiction film about Palestine, Conversation with the Sea is made by Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan. It features Bahira Ablassi, Ruba Blal, Palestine ’36 actor Kamel El Basha, and The Voice of Hind Rajab star Amer Hlehel.
Conversation with the Sea was picked up for international release, but the dates have not yet been announced. In the meantime, the film is playing at many festivals. Next, it’ll be in Poland on October 10 for the Warsaw International Film Festival.
Edward Said: Between Worlds (at film festivals)
Edward Said, for those of you who don’t know, was a Palestinian-American academic who taught literature at Columbia University. His family fled Jerusalem amid the 1948 Palestine War, heading first to Egypt then to the U.S. He served on the Palestinian National Council, advocating for Palestinians to have a right to return to the land from which the Israelis forced them.
His story is told in a new documentary, Edward Said: Between Worlds, which premiered at Toronto. The film’s director, Maiken Baird, previously helmed Venus and Serena and Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich and produced the excellent City of Ghosts and Icarus. Musk director Alex Gibney serves as an executive producer. Baird said, according to IndieWire, that Apple and Netflix support the project, but neither has committed to acquiring and releasing it — clearly they’ve both been scared off by the subject matter.
The film is currently showing at film festivals, with no domestic or international distributor yet attached. This month, it will be screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Middleburg Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, New York Film Festival, AFI Fest, and Denver Film Festival.
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If you’re reading this column and would like to share your perspectives on the work I cover, or if you’re Palestinian and want to open a dialogue, my email is listed below. This column is also available to read on my Substack, which you can access for free here.
Contact me at clement@filminquiry.com
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