New US Trailer for ‘Palestine 36’ Historical Drama with Jeremy Irons
by Alex Billington
October 23, 2025
Source: YouTube
“I don’t want to fight.” “None of us do.” Watermelon Pictures has unveiled their own full US trailer for the acclaimed film Palestine 36, made by Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir as her fourth feature. This is Palestine’s submission to the Oscars this year and it will open in January. This first premiered at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival last month, and it next plays at AFI Fest and the Denver Film Festival. The film is set during the years 1936 – 1939 following a man going between Jerusalem and his rural home amid escalating unrest with the British Empire rulers at the time. This is just before the Holocaust and the British Mandate in 1947 & 1948 that would lead to the creation of the State of Israel after 1945. Back in 1936, as Palestinian villages revolt against British colonial rule, Yusuf navigates between Jerusalem and his home during unrest and a pivotal moment for the British Empire just before the start of World War II. The historical drama stars Hiam Abbass, Saleh Bakri, Robert Aramayo, Billy Howle, Liam Cunningham, Yasmine Al-Massri, Dafer L’Abidine, Yumna Marwan, Karim Daoud Anaya, & Jeremy Irons as Commissioner Wauchope. This is a better trailer than the other one we posted recently. I really want to see it! Take a look.
Here’s the new official US trailer for Annemarie Jacir’s film Palestine 36, direct from Screen’s YouTube:
You can also view the other UK trailer for Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 film right here for more footage.
Intro from TIFF: “Rare archival footage sets the stage, providing a potent counterpoint to the dramatic action: Jerusalem’s bustling mix of peoples in the wake of the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution, migration of European Jews fleeing the Nazis, and British attempts to impose colonial rule. In the midst of this, Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya) shunts between his traditional village & the rapidly changing city. Afra (Wardi Eilabouni) tries to navigate change with the aid of her grandmother (Hiam Abbass). A dissatisfied port worker (Saleh Bakri) finds the pressures of earning a living and supporting his family drawing him into a rebel movement. Can British officialdom, represented powerfully by Irons, even keep up?” Palestine 36, also known as فلسطين ٣٦ in Arabic, is written and directed by the Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, director of the films Salt of This Sea, When I Saw You, Wajib, and episodes of the series “Ramy” previously. It’s produced by Ossama Bawardi, Cat Villiers, Azzam Fakhreddin, Hani Farsi, Nils Åstrand, Olivier Barbier, Nathanaël Karmitz, Katrin Pors, Hamza Ali. This initially premiered at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival this fall. Watermelon Pictures will debut Palestine 36 in US theaters starting January 2026. Who’s interested?
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