By Hailey Passmore
In the 1990s, the founder and director of the London Palestine Film Festival, Khaled Ziada, created the London Palestine Film Festival. His goal was to create a safe space for discussion. Through the creative lens that cinema brings to the world, each edition of the festival explores political realities and stories experienced by Palestinians. Their lives have been affected greatly not only at home but also through the dispersion of their people. By continuing this annual two-week film festival, the cinema gives Palestinians a place to express and share their voice.
Another edition of the London Palestine Film Festival (LPFF) returns this November. The 2025 line-up is filled with powerful and moving films that give the audience insights into the lives, culture, and strength of Palestinians. With the world’s current climate, this year’s LPFF showcases films that share the struggles in Gaza and beyond. As well, for the first time since its beginning, LPFF will travel beyond London and have screenings in Liverpool as well. This allows for the festival to reach audiences further north and outside of London.
Both the opening and closing night of the festival bring promising and compelling stories to the audience. The Voice of Hind Rajab (Hania, 2025) is set to open the festival, while two special events close the festival. The final night will see a shorts programme presented as well as Cherien Dabis’ All That’s Left of You.
Opening on Friday, the 14th of November at the Barbican in London will be the critically acclaimed The Voice of Hind Rajab. Director Kaouther Ben Hania’s film blew audiences away with its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 3rd, 2025. After winning multiple awards and traveling across the globe to several film festivals, it will now lead LPFF. As it follows the distressing final moments of six-year-old Hind Rajab during the Gaza bombardment, each moment keeps you gasping for air. Both fictional and non-fictional, the film uses the recordings of Hind Rajab and the workers at the emergency services to create a haunting effect. The screening at LPFF will be followed by a discussion with cast members Amer Hlehel and Motaz Malhees.
Closing the festival on Friday, November 28th, will be a shorts programme screened at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). This programme is set to present an aural and optical meditation on the lives in and outside Gaza. These shorts will explore the sound and silence that is created through war, memory, and survival. This closing night will also have All That’s Left of You available to experience at Riverside Studios. Director Cherien Dabis’ film is a portrait of three generations of a Palestinian family. It hauntingly follows their path through exile, resistance, and memory. All That’s Left of You is also Jordan’s official entry for the 2026 Academy Awards.
The festival includes several empowering and life-changing films. Among which include the powerful documentary The Mission, directed by The Gaza Collective and Mike Lerner. Making its UK premiere, The Mission finds itself as one of the festival’s most important films. British-Iraqi surgeon Dr. Mohammed Tahir is on his third humanitarian mission to Gaza. The Mission is filmed by several members of his medical team and captures the real and intense state of Gaza’s operating rooms. There, Dr. Tahir and his colleagues work with little rest to save lives amidst the chaos of the environment.
Amidst the intensity of the opening and closing nights, LPFF’s curated programme of internationally acclaimed works will continue to change the way the audience sees the world. Highlights listed from the programme include Palestine 36 (Jacir, 2025) and Once Upon a Time in Gaza (Tarzan & Tarzan, 2025). From the two-week festival, many films will help share Palestinian lives and sufferings through the art form of cinema.
The full programme includes the following films:
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Hania, 2025)
- Friday, November 14th, 20:30 at Barbican Cinema 1
- Saturday, November 15th, 18:20 at Curzon Soho
Yalla Parkour (Zuaiter, 2024)
- Saturday, November 15, 14:00 at The Garden Cinema
With Hasan in Gaza (Aljafari, 2025)
- Sunday, November 16th, 13:00 at ICA, Screen 1
Palestine 36 (Jacir, 2025)
- Sunday, November 16th, 17:40 at Curzon Soho
The Palestine Exception (Haaken & Ruth, 2024)
- Monday, November 17th, 18:45 at Genesis Cinema
A State of Passion (Mansour & Khalidi, 2024)
- Monday, November 17th, 20:45 at FACT, Liverpool
- Monday, November 24th, 20:00 at Riverside Studios, Screen 1
Thank You for Banking With Us! (Abbas, 2024)
- Monday, November 17th, 20:45 at Barbican Cinema 1
Song of All Ends (Lorusso, 2024)
- Tuesday, November 18th, 18:20 at Bertha DocHouse
The Tank and the Olive Tree (Nurier, 2019)
- Tuesday, November 18th, 20:00 at Sands Films Cinema Club
SkatePal Double Bill: Epicly Palestine’d (Joa & Krish, 2015) and EXIST (Bengtsson & Telegin, 2025)
- Wednesday, November 19th, 18:45 at Genesis Cinema
Once Upon a Time in Gaza (Tarzan & Tarzan, 2025)
- Friday, November 21st, 20:00 at Riverside Studios, Screen 1
Ayouni (Fedda, 2020)
- Saturday, November 22nd, 14:00 at ICA, Screen 1
The Mission (Lerner, 2025)
- Sunday, November 23rd, 17:40 at Curzon Soho
48 Resisting the Big Settlement (Team 218, 2025) and Where the Wind Blows (Elias, 2024)
- Monday, November 24th, 19:00 at Genesis Cinema
Shorts Session: Bearing Witness — Gaza Sound Man (Abu Dan, 2024), The Clown of Gaza (Sabbah, 2025), and Vibrations from Gaza (Nazzal et al., 2023)
- Monday, November 24th, 19:00 at FACT, Liverpool
Yallah Gaza (Nurier, 2023)
- Tuesday, November 25th, 20:00 at Sands Film Cinema Club
Passing Dreams (Masharawi, 2024)
- Tuesday, November 25th, 20:45 at Barbican Cinema 1
Shorts Session: Fragments of Life — Born a Celebrity (Awwad, 2024), Fin (Kayyal, 2025), Canary in a Coal Mine (Kaoukji, 2023), What If They Bomb Here Tonight (Syriani, 2025), and Upshot (Haj, 2024)
- Wednesday, November 26th, 18:20 at Curzon Hoxton, Screen 1
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (Farsi, 2025)
- Wednesday, November 26th, 20:45 at ICA, Screen 1
The Jacket (Poppe, 2024) and The Clown of Gaza (Sabbah, 2025)
- Thursday, November 27th, 18:20 at Curzon Hoxton, Screen 1
Shorts Session: Bearing Witness — Gaza Sound Man (Abu Dan, 2025), Vibrations from Gaza (Nazzal, 2024), Sounds of Gaza (Ghrouz, 2025), and The Diary of a Sky (Hamdan, 2024)
- Friday, November 28th, 18:30 at ICA, Screen 1
All That’s Left of You (Dabis, 2025)
- Friday, November 28th, 20:00 at Riverside, Screen 1
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