Our festival was picked up by Khaleej Times, Timeout Dubai, Scoop Empire, Barakabits, The National, The Culturist and Arabic press! Check out what the media has been saying about us. 

Khaleej Times's coverage "Film Festival to Bring Palestine in Reels"

"Showing these films, in essence, gets people to see beyond the wall, beyond what's on the news and beyond the heart wrenching events that happen.. We forget that there is love and heartbreak. There are children. There are still happy moments that happen in Palestine, and we want to highlight both sides of it."

"According the founders of Reel Palestine,  “Showing these films, in essence, gets people to see beyond the wall, beyond what’s on the news and beyond the heart wrenching events that happen”. She continues, “We forget that there is love and heartbreak. There are children. There are still happy moments that happen in Palestine, and we want to highlight both sides of it.”

"Endless violence, impoverished villages and scenes of despondency: These dramatized images are a defining part of the global image mainstream media has created about Palestine. These representations are hugely detrimental to the growth, determination and purposefulness that stems from the Palestinian people, both in and out of the Diaspora. A pop-up film series is making its debut today, and runs until January 25, in Dubai and Sharjah, that seeks to shed those stereotypes and tell the authentic, shrouded stories about Palestinian people."

Barakbits covered the festival in 2016 with their article "Tear down the wall with Reel Palestine 2016 Film Festival"

​From Barakabits' 2015 article "No More Propaganda on Palestine: Reel Palestine Shares a Real Vision"

Scoop Empire's review of Maqloubeh in Reel Palestine Honors Life Under Occupation

Maqloubeh, a dark comedy created around the famous Palestinian dish, paid homage not only to the nostalgic meal, but to the normalcy of being raided by the IDF. While the dish was on the stove, the IDF storms in- the guys are so used to it that while they’re being handcuffed and slammed against the walls, the old lady next door reminds them to take their coats. The boys have a “not again” look on their face as one asks to just get his eyeglasses. The film was able to capture the humor and normalcy of a situation that is traditionally considered terrifying.

Leila Sansour left Bethlehem as a teenager in the 1980s in search of a more exciting life and education in Europe, much to her father’s dismay. Little did she know then that she would return two decades later to make a film that depicts the daily difficulties of living in a city that has been under such an intricate and long-standing occupation.

The film – which will be screened for the first time in the UAE tomorrow through Reel Palestine, a local pop-up film festival aimed at revealing Palestinian life and culture – is a first-person account that revolves around Sansour, as the Christian-­Palestinian becomes ­reacquainted with her native city.

Leila Sansour’s film shows just another day in Palestine in The National