Representation and emancipation: Cinema of the oppressed

Abstract

Palestinian cinematic productions have historically attempted to alter biased perceptions of their identity, experience of dispossession, and struggle for liberation, using films to communicate the harsh realities of Israeli occupation. While preserving a pluralistic and hybrid character, and blending different genres from Third and Second films (experimental, neorealist, and transnational), Palestinian cinema – as examined through a close reading of Tawfik Saleh’s 1972 film The Dupes, Hany Abu-Assad’s Rana’s Wedding from 2002, and Najwa Najjar’s 2014 Eyes of a Thief – contests monolithic tropes and representations of Palestinians as either victims or terrorists in Western media and films. Drawing on Edward Said’s analysis of representation and its ties to occupation, the goal of this article is to engage with the idea of film narratives as a form of intervention that demystifies racial bias against colonized people, transforms viewers’ political consciousness, and devises strategies to keep resistance legitimate and ongoing.