Palestine Cinema Days: Return to Haifa & Foragers Film Screenings

Join us for Palestine Cinema Days Around the World, a global initiative by Filmlab Palestine that transcends borders to bring Palestinian stories to audiences everywhere, and to stand against their systematic erasure, silencing, and distortion.

This year marks the 109th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Through Palestine Cinema Days we gather across continents to confront a history that continues to shape Palestinians present. More than a century after a colonial promise made over Palestinian land and lives, we come together to show: Palestinians are still here. Their stories are still alive. Their voices continue to be heard.

A fragile ceasefire may quiet the headlines, but it does not stop the genocide. In Gaza, death continues through siege, starvation, displacement, and abandonment. In the West Bank, Palestinians are confined by Israeli checkpoints, families are being terrorised, olive groves are being destroyed, and settlers are driving Palestinians from their land with violence and impunity.

At a time when Palestinian voices are silenced, their suffering is reduced to background noise, and their very existence is contested, cinema becomes more than art; it becomes a means of bearing witness, preserving memory, and resisting erasure. Through Palestine Cinema Days Around the World 2026, we will gather not only to screen films, but to make space for their voices, to listen to their stories, and to affirm that the Palestinian narrative cannot be erased.

When: Tuesday, 3rd November, 4:00 - 9:00pm
Location: 半路咖啡 Halfway Cafe
台北市大安區羅斯福路三段269巷51弄9號
No. 9, Alley 51, Lane 269, Section 3, Roosevelt Road, Daxue Village, Da’an District, Taipei

This event is organised by: Plan D & Amnesty International Taiwan English Speaking Group

Our Schedule for 3rd November:

4:00pm - 5:30pm Screening of Return to Haifa
5:30pm - 7:00pm Dinner break (During the break, we encourage everyone to grab dinner together at a nearby spot, continue conversations about the film and Palestine, and connect with one another. We can then come back for the next screening with new friends, fresh perspectives, and conversations that continue beyond the cinema.)
7:00pm - 9:00pm Screening of Foragers + Discussion

We’d love you to attend the full schedule, but you’re welcome to join whichever screenings work best for you.

About the films:

Return to Haifa《重返海法》
Directed by Kassem Hawal
1982 | Drama
Film is in Arabic, with English subtitles

Return to Haifa is based on Ghassan Kanafani’s novel the plot of which takes place in 1967, when Palestinian refugees living in the newly occupied territories had an opportunity to visit the places from which they had been expelled during the nakba. A Palestinian couple go back to Haifa to look for their baby, whom they were forced to leave behind in the war of 1948. They find him grown up as an Israeli adopted son, now a soldier in the Israeli army.

Foragers 《野食採集者》
Directed by Jumana Manna
2022 | Documentary
Film is in Arabic & Hebrew, with English and Chinese subtitles

Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine with wry humor and a meditative pace. The film interweaves fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on Palestinian foragers. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers capture the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

今年是《貝爾福宣言》發表的第 109 週年。一個多世紀前，殖民者的一紙宣言，讓巴勒斯坦人失去了家園。在「全球巴勒斯坦電影日」，我們直面這段至今仍深刻影響巴勒斯坦人處境的歷史，共同宣告，巴勒斯坦人依然在這片土地上生活。

脆弱的停火或許讓巴勒斯坦暫時淡出新聞頭條，但種族滅絕並未停止。在加沙，巴勒斯坦人仍在圍困、飢餓與流離失所中失去生命。在約旦河西岸，巴勒斯坦人受制於以色列設下的檢查哨，橄欖園遭到摧毀，定居者更肆無忌憚地以暴力迫使巴勒斯坦人離開自己的土地。

當巴勒斯坦人的聲音遭到噤聲，他們的苦難被忽略，甚至連他們的存在都受到質疑，電影便不再只是藝術，而是成為見證歷史、保存記憶、抵抗抹除的方法。
透過 2026 年「全球巴勒斯坦電影日」，我們聚集在一起，不只是為了放映電影，更是為了讓巴勒斯坦人的聲音被聽見，讓他們的故事被看見。巴勒斯坦人的故事，不會被抹除。

《重返海法》（Return to Haifa）
導演：Kassem Hawal
年份：1982 年｜劇情片
語言：阿拉伯語，附英文字幕

《重返海法》改編自格桑·卡納法尼（Ghassan Kanafani）的小說。故事背景設在 1967 年，當時居住在新近被占領領土上的巴勒斯坦難民，有機會回到他們在 1948 年「大災難」（Nakba）期間被迫離開的家園。一對巴勒斯坦夫婦重回海法，尋找他們在 1948 年戰爭中被迫留下的嬰兒。他們發現，孩子已經長大，被以色列家庭收養，更成為了一名以色列軍人。

《野食採集者》（Foragers）
導演：茱瑪納．曼納（Jumana Manna）
年份：2022 年｜紀錄片
語言：阿拉伯語及希伯來語，附英文及中文字幕

《野食採集者》以幽默與沉靜的敘事節奏，描繪巴勒斯坦人採集野生可食用植物時的種種遭遇。電影交織劇情、紀錄與歷史檔案影像，呈現以色列自然保護法對巴勒斯坦採集者造成的影響。以植物作為線索，從野外到廚房，從採集者與自然巡查人員之間的追逐，到法庭上的辯護，《野食採集者》記錄了這些傳統所承載的喜悅與知識，以及人們面對法律限制時展現出來的韌性。透過重新思考自然保育的規定與限制，電影提出對物種滅絕政治性的提問，究竟誰決定哪些事物應該消失，又有哪些事物可以繼續存在？