Some cinemas are born out of urgency. Palestinian cinema is one of them — born without a state, without an industry, without stable territory, and yet endowed with a formal and political richness that defies every absence. This festival is an affirmation: Palestine exists, it has a history, it has a memory, it has images. And these images deserve to be seen, debated, and passed on.
From April 2 to 12, 2026, the Cinéma Théâtre Le Rio welcomes the first edition of the Palestinian Cinema Festival in Tunis. Eleven days, around forty films, filmmakers in attendance, open debates. Not a commemorative event. A political stance.
The image plays a fundamental role in shaping our identities and in how our stories are perceived and told. This festival is rooted in the conviction that Palestinian cinema, born in exile, resistance and urgency, constitutes one of the richest and most necessary bodies of work in contemporary world cinema
By bringing together founding works and contemporary creations, militant archives and avant-garde experiments, the Palestinian Cinema Festival in Tunis aspires to create a space of solidarity, transmission and debate. It is committed to supporting a cinema grounded in the realities of Arab and Global South peoples, while offering an alternative to dominant narratives.
Tunis is not a neutral spectator in this history. Tunisia hosted the PLO, endured the Israeli bombings of 1985 on Hammam Chott, and carries in its collective body something of this Arab solidarity with the Palestinian cause. This festival is rooted in that memory, and in a present where the question of Palestine has never been more urgent.
The Palestinian Cinema Festival in Tunis is an independent cultural initiative led by cinema and culture professionals who believe that the image is a political act, a tool of memory and a vehicle of solidarity.
Founded in 2026, the festival's mission is to introduce and promote Palestinian cinema in its full historical and formal breadth: from the pioneering films of the 1960s to the most contemporary creations, from militant documentaries to the most formally adventurous experiments.
The festival operates from Tunis — a city that maintains a particular historical, political and affective connection with Palestine — with the conviction that culture is a universal right and that art can be a lever for social transformation and symbolic resistance.
