14th Annual Houston Palestine Film Festival

Due to extraordinary circumstances having to do with the Coronavirus pandemic, the Executive Committee of the Houston Palestine Film Festival has decided to postpone the 2020 festival until further notice. Please check this website periodically for the latest updates. We hope that you and your families stay safe in these difficult times.

Friday, May 15 - 7:00 PM | Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Houston 

We Take Back Mountains (7 min) | Hind Shoufani & Iain Akerman Soufra (73 min) | Thomas A. Morgan

Soufra follows the unlikely and wildly inspirational story of intrepid social entrepreneur, Mariam Shaar – a generational refugee who has spent her entire life in the Burj El Barajneh refugee camp just south of Beirut, Lebanon. The film follows Mariam as she sets out against all odds to change her fate by launching a successful catering company, “Soufra,” and then expand it into a food truck business with a diverse team of fellow refugee woman who now share this camp as their home. Together, they heal the wounds of war through the unifying power of food while taking their future into their own hands through an unrelenting belief in Mariam, and in each other. In the process, Mariam is breaking barriers, pulling together Syrian, Iraqi, Palestinian and Lebanese women to work side by side and form beautiful friendships while running this thriving business.

Saturday, May 16 - 7:00 PM | Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 

Heritage (5 min) | Emil Munk It Must Be Heaven (102 min) | Elia Suleiman

From award-winning director Elia Suleiman, It Must Be Heaven, which was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, is a comic saga exploring identity, nationality and belonging, in which Suleiman asks the fundamental question: where is the place we can truly call home?Suleiman, who plays himself in the film, takes us on an insightful journey from the moment he escapes from Palestine seeking an alternative homeland, only to find that Palestine is trailing behind him. The promise of a new life turns into a comedy of errors: however far he travels, from Paris to New York, something always reminds him of home.