TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

This screening will have a rush line. If you are looking for a ticket wait in the rush line. If you have a ticket, your seat will be held until 15 minutes before showtime. After that, we can’t guarantee your spot, and it may be offered to guests in the rush line.

Once Upon a Time in Gaza
Screening with: Sounds of Gaza

Duration: 90 min Director: Tarzan and Arab Nasser Genre: Drama Year: 2025
Country: France Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Description:
Gaza, 2007. Yahya, a young student, forges a friendship with Osama, a charismatic restaurant owner with a big heart. Together, they start peddling drugs while delivering falafel sandwiches, but they are soon forced to grapple with a corrupt cop and his oversized ego …

Cast: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Awards: Cannes
More Info: Party Sales

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

Sounds of Gaza
Screening with: Once Upon a Time in Gaza

Duration: 6 min Director: Ahmad Ghrouz Genre: Short film Year: 2025
Country: Palestine

Description:
The small details of daily life are often the most telling. This moving visual and sonic portrait, "Sounds of Gaza", captures the heartbeat of a people surviving 21 months of an ongoing genocide. In the words of writer and poet Dr. Mariam Qawwash, the video gives voice to the injustice, disappointment, and irreparable loss experienced by Palestinians in Gaza.

More Info: Miftah.org

Gallery, TIFF Lightbox

TWO EVENT TIMES: 6:00PM and 8:15PM

TPFF and Another Story Bookshop are thrilled to host the launch of Saeed Teebi's new book You Will Not Kill Our Imagination: A Memoir of Palestine and Writing in Dark Times on September 25, in advance of the Sept 30 publication date.

The discussion moderated by award winning author Noor Naga (If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English.)

Due to overwhelming demand - second book event with Saeed Teebi has been added! Almost all the reserved seating has been claimed for the 6pm event.  To accommodate everyone interested in joining Saeed Teebi for his book launch, TPFF along with our partners, are hosting a second event on Sept 25 at 8:15pm to ensure that everyone can join us for this special night!  Please register for the second event via our registration form.

Registration is free. Purchase an advance copy of Saeed Teebi's book at a 20% discount! Only a limited number of regular priced books available at the TIFF store during store hours.

Book signing will take place after the discussion and 30 mins before the event when doors open.

This event is in partnership with Another Story Bookshop and Simon & Shuster Canada.

SYNOPSIS
A vital, fearless memoir explores what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment, the effects of the genocide on Palestinian art and imagination, and that to even claim a belonging to the land from a country thousands of miles away is an act of subversion—a book that Omar El Akkad says “so perfectly contextualizes and humanizes so much of what has led us to this awful moment, and one that will be remembered long after.”

Imagination is a more powerful force than hope.

Acclaimed author Saeed Teebi was at work on his first novel when the attacks on Gaza began in late 2023. The violence and cruelty of the attacks, accompanied by the assent and silence of international governments, stunned many across the globe, like Teebi, into a new state of permanent horror.

What does it mean to be of the Palestinian diaspora in such a moment? What does it mean to be of a people who have sustained such a large-scale assault not only on their homeland, but their entire identity? What is the role of art, of language—of imagination—in asserting one’s identity, when that very assertion is read as an act of subversion?

In this incisive work, Teebi explores, with searing, razor-sharp prose, the effects of genocide on the bodies, minds, and imaginations—of Palestinians especially, and humanity in general.

This is at once a memoir of one family’s displacement, a scathing indictment of global complicity in the face of brutality, and a profound rumination on art and imagination as a means of defiance. It is an astonishing work of resistance by a major intellect, and it is both urgent and timeless.

SAEED TEEBI
Saeed Teebi is an award-winning writer and lawyer. His debut short story collection, Her First Palestinian, was a finalist for several awards, including the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize. His nonfiction has appeared in The Globe and Mail and The New Quarterly. Born in Kuwait, he resettled in the United States, then Canada. He now lives in Toronto.

NOOR NAGA

Noor Naga is an Alexandrian writer. Her verse-novel Washes, Prays (2020) won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Arab American Book Award. Her novel If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English (2022) won the Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the Arab American Book Award. She currently teaches at the University of Toronto.

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Familiar Phantoms
Screening with: Diary of A Sky

Duration: 42 min Director: Søren Lind & Larissa Sansour Genre: Experimental Documentary Year: 2023
Languages: English

Description:
Familiar Phantoms is inspired by anecdotes from Sansour’s own family history and her old childhood in Bethlehem, making it her most personal film to date. Combining scenes filmed in a derelict mansion, Super 8 footage and private photos, the editing mimics the workings of memory, constantly revisiting the same imagery alongside new fragments in search of meaning. Throughout the film, the mansion serves as the seat of memory. In the rooms, vignettes are played out, adding a theatrical dimension, enlarging and exaggerating the narrative components, just as memory perpetually reworks, reinforces, adds and subtracts. While most scenes are acted out by actors, other scenes turn objects and mementos into sculptural installations, a dark space decorated with dozens of suspended love bird cages, a group of taxidermy seagulls sitting on the floor or a free-standing sink full to the brim of lemons.

Awards: BPFF
More Info: Larissa Sansour – Familiar Phantoms

Co-presented by:

Re:assemblage Collective

Writers Against the War on Gaza

Art Metropole

Eglinton-Lawrence & Don Valley for Palestine

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Diary of A Sky
Screening with: Familiar Phantoms

Duration: 45 min Director: Lawrence Abu Hamdan Genre: Experimental Documentary Year: 2024
Country: Lebanon Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Description:
While the world came to a standstill in many places in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an almost eerie silence set in, the noise level increased massively not only in the port city of Beirut, but also in the surrounding airspace. The noise of the roaring generators to compensate for the lack of electricity supply from the state mingles with the noise of the fifty or so Israeli army drones and fighter jets that fly over the country every day. The Diary of a Sky is an essayistic collage of videos aggregated by the artist between 2020 and 2021.

This vast collection of videos is organised here into a chronology that documents the ways in which repeated incursions of Israeli fighter jets and drones have militarised the air itself. All the chapters in this diary bear witness to the ways in which this atmospheric violence is both terrifying and yet so integrated into daily life that it becomes ignorable in its monotony.

Awards: http://lawrenceabuhamdan.com
More Info: Square Eyes

Co-presented by:

Re:assemblage Collective

Writers Against the War on Gaza

Art Metropole

Eglinton-Lawrence & Don Valley for Palestine

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

To A Land Unknown
Screening with: Fragmented

Duration: 105 min Director: Mahdi Fleifel Genre: Crime/Drama Year: 2024
Country: UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Palestine Languages: English

Description:
Reda and Chatila are two Palestinian cousins hustling their way through the underbelly of Athens pursuing their dream of making it to Germany. But as their hardship grows, so too does their desperation. When Chatila hatches a reckless all-or-nothing plan, it strains their bond and pushes the limits of what they will do for freedom.

Cast: Angeliki Papoulia, Mahmoud Bakri, Manal Awad, Aram Sabbah
Awards: Official Selection: Cannes, TIFF, Gotham Awards
More Info: Watermelon Pictures

Co-presented by:

Watermelon Pictures

Reel Asian Film Festival

Hearing Palestine

University-Rosedale for Palestine + Parkdale High Park for Palestine + Brampton for Palestine + Mississauga-Streetsville for Palestine + Etobicoke North for Palestine

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Fragmented
Screening with: To A Land Unknown

Duration: 7 min Director: Tanya Marar, Balolas Carvalho Genre: Short Year: 2025
Country: Palestine, Portugal, Jordan Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Description:
A pioneer of journalism in Gaza, a retired ex-political prisoner, made the impossible decision to leave his homeland after 25 days of genocide and head to Malta. His escape is not only a matter of personal survival, but a desperate attempt to honor his daughter's plea for a chance at a shared future. Fragmented is a collection of memories that confront the human cost of the Israeli military occupation and the ongoing struggle for justice in Palestine. The film reminds us of the power of a sense of belonging in the face of unimaginable adversity and the bonds that unite us in the common desire for freedom and dignity. As Qassem contemplates the uncertain path ahead, Fragmented offers a timely glimpse into the unbreakable spirit of those who refuse to be defeated by oppression.

More Info: ShortFilmWire

Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Ave, Toronto, ON

Discover the rich heritage of Palestinian embroidery through an exclusive collection of traditional toubs at the Textile Museum. Experience centuries-old craftsmanship, intricate tatreez patterns, and vibrant cultural stories woven into these iconic garments. Join us for an immersive journey celebrating Palestinian textile artistry and preserving cultural memory through thread.

Tour Time Slots (30 min):

• 5:00-5:30pm

• 5:45- 6:15pm

• 6:30- 7:00pm

• 7:15 - 7:45pm

Lee’s Palace

TIFF Lightbox
350 King St W, Toronto,
Gallery (Lobby)

Palestinian artist Jude Abu Zaineh and researcher at Sufra Archive Salma Serry will explore the intersections of culture, displacement, and belonging through interdisciplinary practices. Abu Zaineh will discuss how she used art, food, and technology to examine diaspora and home, while Serry will share insights from her West Asian food archive and research on power infrastructures within food systems, highlighting shared themes of cultural preservation and identity.

Abu Zaineh will tour her exhibition “The Stones Know Our Names” at TIFF Lightbox and Serry will display rare documents from her treasured archive. Join us Saturday the 27th at 12:30-2:30pm for an exciting and educational afternoon with two powerhouses. Walk-ins welcome

Bios:

Jude Abu Zaineh is a Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist-curator working across art, food, science, and technology studies. Her work develops counter-archive practices and investigates themes of culture, displacement, storytelling, diaspora, and belonging, through de-colonial and feminist perspectives. She examines ideals of home and community influenced by her childhood and upbringing in Southwest Asia. 

Abu Zaineh is the recipient of several awards including, the 2020 William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Artists, and was one of the first selected artists to participate in a collaborative residency with the Ontario Science Centre and MOCA Toronto (Canada). She has presented her works at Ireland Glass Biennale; Malta Society of Arts, Valletta, Malta; Cultivamos Cultura, São Luis, Portugal; Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia, Lisbon, Portugal; Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City, Mexico; SVA, NYC, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, USA; Forest City Gallery, London, Canada; Art Gallery of Windsor, Canada; Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, France; Museum London, Canada; Museum of Glass, Washington, USA, and more.

Salma Serry is a doctoral researcher and cultural worker specialized in the history of food in West Asia and Egypt. She is also the curator of @Sufra_Archive, a digital archive project and social media platform dedicated to West Asian and North African food history and culture. Currently, Salma is working on a PhD in History in the University of Toronto with a specialization in Food Studies at the Culinaria Research Center. Her research projects revolve broadly around infrastructures of power and food systems. Her PhD project was recently awarded the distinguished SSHRC Doctoral Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada, while her art projects have received the Research on the Arts grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS). Her research and public programming projects have been exhibited at Art Jameel (Dubai), Hayy Jameel (Jeddah), the Arab Council for Social Sciences (Beirut), the Islamic Biennial (Jeddah), and Cairo Design Week, focusing on the intersection of food history, culture, and the art.

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Passing Dreams
Screening with: I Witness Silwan

Duration: 79 min Director: Rashid Masharawi Genre: Drama/Fiction Year: 2024
Country: Palestine, France, Sweden Languages: English, Hebrew & Arabic (translated)

This film is family friendly and we welcomes audiences of all ages to join us. Following the screening join us for a children’s workshop.

Description:
Passing Dreams, directed by Rashid Masharawi, is a poignant Palestinian road movie that follows 12-year-old Sami, who lives with his mother in a West Bank refugee camp. When his cherished homing pigeon goes missing, Sami becomes convinced it has returned to its place of origin. He persuades his uncle Kamal and cousin Miriam to travel across Palestine in search of it. Their journey—from Qalandia to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Haifa—offers a moving glimpse into Palestinian life under occupation. Through tender moments, quiet humour, and human connection, Passing Dreams explores themes of memory, belonging, and resilience in the face of displacement.

Awards: Palestinian Film Award (Special Mention), Cairo Int’l Film Festival; Malmö Arab Film Festival; Marrakech Film Festival
More Info: Coorigines Production

Co-presented by:

Regent Park Film Festival

Learn Palestine

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

I Witness Silwan
Screening with: Passing Dreams

Duration: 4 min Director: Ahed Izhiman Genre: Documentary Year: 2024
Country: Palestine Languages: English

Description:
I Witness Silwan: Art, Resistance, and Placemaking in Occupied Jerusalem offers a poetic and defiant portrait of life in Silwan, where 65,000 Palestinians face ongoing threats of forced expulsion. Told through the eyes of youth, the film documents a powerful public art project that transforms walls into sites of resistance and remembrance. Towering murals of eyes—those of revolutionaries, writers, martyrs, and community members—gaze out across Jerusalem, asserting presence in a city intent on erasure. Figures like Che Guevara, Rachel Corrie, Malcolm X, Shireen Abu Akleh, Iyad al-Halak, and local residents become symbols of steadfastness. Alongside them bloom murals of red poppies, Palestine’s national flower, as well as suns, trees, and birds—visual affirmations of life, memory, and belonging. As court appeals are lost and demolitions continue, the film captures the deepening impact of these artworks on Silwan’s youth and community. Through intimate glimpses of local and international artists working with residents, I Witness Silwan becomes a testament to creative resistance and the enduring power of art to claim space and shape collective memory in the face of dispossession.

Executive Producer: Susan Greene
Producer/Director: Ahed Izhiman
Co Director/Editor: Yousef Hammad
Camera: Yazid Dadu
I Witness Silwan Mural Team: Manar S, Jenan M, Chris Ghazaleh, Taqi Spateen, Susan Greene

More Info: iwitnesssilwan.org

Gallery, TIFF Lightbox

This workshop co-hosted with Learn Palestine invites youth to learn about the Nakba through stories, games, and creative activities and grow their knowledge of Palestine.

The workshop begins with a gallery walk where participants explore Nakba stories around the room, followed by a lively round of trivia games to test and share knowledge. Together, we’ll draw connections between Palestine and Turtle Island, and watch a short story video clips to deepen our understanding of the impacts of settler-colonialism.

Afterwards, in small groups, participants will be assigned a Palestinian city or village and will collaborate on an interactive poster that brings its story to life. These posters will be scanned and shared so everyone has a copy to take home.

The workshop closes with a conversation on why it’s important to speak about the Nakba today, linking it to anti-Palestinian racism, human rights, and ongoing struggles for justice. Through learning, reflection, and creativity, youth will walk away with new knowledge and tools to carry these stories forward.  

Recommended ages 10+

Email tpff.submissions@gmail.com if fees are unaffordable. 

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

This screening will have a rush line. If you are looking for a ticket wait in the rush line. If you have a ticket, your seat will be held until 15 minutes before showtime. After that, we can’t guarantee your spot, and it may be offered to guests in the rush line.

The Encampments + Panel
Screening with: $17.74

Duration: 81 min Director: Michael T. Workman, Kei Pritsker Genre: Documentary Year: 2025
Country: United States Languages: English

Description:
From Executive Producer Macklemore, The Encampments offers an urgent, intimate portrait of America’s student movement, ignited at Columbia University as students protested their universities’ ties to the war on Gaza. Their actions sparked a nationwide uprising, with encampments spreading across hundreds of campuses. Featuring detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, alongside professors, whistleblowers, and organizers, the film captures the deeper stakes of a historic moment that continues to reverberate across the globe.

Cast: Mahmoud Khalil, Sueda Polat, Bisan Awda
Awards: CPH:DOX
More Info: Watermelon Pictures

Co-presented by:

Watermelon Pictures

Palestine Youth Movement

Faculty for Palestine

Cupe 3902

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

$17.74
Screening with: The Encampments

Duration: 13 min Director: Justin Mashouf Genre: Documentary Year: 2025
Country: United States Languages: English

Description:
$17.74 centers on Hamzah, a man serving a life sentence in a California prison. Hamzah’s story takes an unexpected turn in 2023 after the Israeli siege on Gaza. Appalled by Israel’s siege on Gaza and knowing personally the trauma caused by violence, Hamzah is compelled to take action and donates his entire month’s paycheck of $17.74 – towards aid efforts in Gaza. The film highlights the interconnectedness of human experiences and the universal quest for hope and redemption. It also shines a spotlight on mass incarceration in America.

Awards: Chicago Palestine Film Festival, American Documentary Film Festival
More Info: 1774film.com

Gallery, TIFF Lightbox

United in Action: Lessons for Collective Change

Campus organizing has always played a critical role in the gains achieved by broader social justice movements - in the case of Palestine, campuses have been the primary space of Palestine organizing. Last year, one student encampment at Columbia university sparked hundreds globally including in Canada that pressured complicit universities to divest from apartheid Israel. The results varied from campus to campus - but greater than that was the solidarity both on and off campus and between campus that was formed and clear message of no business as usual in a genocide. These sites were hubs of strategic organizing and community building.

This panel with share reflections from recent student organizing to explore how movements, on campuses and beyond, thrive when diverse capacities come together. From student organizing to labour solidarity, and political and media engagement, the panellists will share their experiences in their unique role, the practical limitations of their work, and how these roles intersect to amplify campaigns and sustain momentum across contexts.

The discussion will explore:

• How students, workers, and academics can collaborate effectively across spaces.

• Practical strategies for organizing, communicating, and maintaining movement momentum.

• Lessons learned from challenges, successes, and cross-sector collaboration.

By centering both the strengths and limits of each role, this panel highlights how collective action relies on networks of power and solidarity.

Panellists:

• Sara Rasikh, PhD student at U of T, community organizer

• Marianna Reis, PhD, President CUPE 3902

• D2, Student Workers of Columbia (SWC) - UAW 2710 member

• Mohammed Yassin, U of T student organizer, PYM

• Joshua Sealy-Harrington, Chair in Palestinian Human Rights in Canada, Windsor Law

Copresented with: Occupy Toronto, Tkaraonto Student Solidarity with Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement

Sara Rasikh (she/her) is a community organizer and PhD student based in Tkaronto. She was a spokesperson and organizer for the People’s Circle encampment at U of T. She has over seven years of experience in gender justice and Palestine solidarity organizing and her research at the University of Toronto focuses on anti-colonial social justice movements and transnational feminist theories.

Joshua Sealy-Harrington is an Associate Professor, Chair in Palestinian Human Rights in Canada and the Chair of Equality Law at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. Before joining Windsor Law, Joshua supported TMU Law students who were attacked for a letter in support of Palestine. Joshua also was a Law Clerk at the Federal Court and Supreme Court of Canada, as well as an Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, where he was awarded “Professor of the Year” by the student body and “Person of the Year” by the faculty association for his steadfast defence of academic and Palestinian freedom. Joshua’s research (as a doctoral student at Columbia Law School) and advocacy (as Counsel at Power Law) apply critical legal theory to questions of socio-legal identity and justice, with a particular focus on Black and Palestinian solidarity/resistance.

Marianna Reis is an organizer, researcher, and educator living in Toronto. Her doctoral research examined urban planning, infrastructure, and the materialities of settler colonialism for ‘48 Palestinians. She is the current president of CUPE 3902, which represents more than 10,000 contract academic workers at the University of Toronto.

D2, Student Workers of Columbia (SWC) - UAW 2710 member (identifying information not included for their protection)

Mohammad Yassin is an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and an alumnus of the University of Toronto. As a student, he worked to push UofT to divest from and cut ties with institutions that propagate the genocidal Israeli regime. During OccupyUofT's encampment at the People's Circle for Palestine, he took on the role of media spokesperson and was a member of the negotiation team that met with the university's administration.

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

Duration: 110 min Director: Sepideh Farsi Genre: Documentary Year: 2025
Country: France, Iran, Palestine Languages: English

Description:
At the beginning of the genocide, Iranian-exiled director Sepideh Farsi naively sought a way into Gaza to cover the unfolding genocide. In the course of her failed mission, a contact connected her with acclaimed Palestinian photographer and poet Fatma Hassona. While the two had differing views on religion, Middle East politics and exile, their curiousity of each other’s lives resulted in an unlikely friendship over the course of their regularly scheduled glitchy video calls. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk offers an intimate, first-hand perspective on life under genocide in Gaza, through the video calls between Sepideh and Fatma. Tragically, Fatma was killed with her family, in a targeted Israeli airstrike on her home on April 16, 2025 - just one day after she celebrated the announcement of the film’s selection at Cannes. Combining raw immediacy with deep humanity, the film portrays daily life during the genocide through the eyes of a young Palestinian caught in a lifetime of Israeli military aggression and siege.

Cast: Fatma Hassona
Awards: Cannes

Co-presented by:

Pleasure Dome

Just Peace Advocates

Canadian Journalists For Justice in Palestine (CJJP)

South Asian Visual Arts Centre

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Thank You for Banking With Us
Screening with: Blood Like Water

Duration: 92 min Director: Laila Abbas Genre: Drama Year: 2024
Country: Palestine, Germany, Saudi Arabia Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Q&A with the director to follow.

Description:
In this darkly comedic drama by Palestinian director Laila Abbas, two sisters in Ramallah face a legal and moral dilemma after their father’s sudden death. When they discover he left a large sum of money in the bank, they must act quickly to withdraw it—before their estranged brother claims his legally entitled share under Sharia inheritance law. Mariam, a weary housewife, and Noura, an outspoken professional, are polar opposites, yet they must work together to outwit a system designed to sideline them. What unfolds is a suspenseful, at times humorous, scheme that exposes the gendered injustice embedded in both law and society.

Cast: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Awards: Al Gouna Film Festival
More Info: MAD Distribution

Co-presented by:

Canadian Council Muslim Woman

Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival

Toronto Queer Film Festival

Queers for Palestine

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Blood Like Water
Screening with: Thank You for Banking With Us

Duration: 14 min Director: Dima Hamdan Genre: Drama Year: 2023
Country: Palestine Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Description:
Shadi embarks on a secret adventure, and accidentally drags his family into a trap where they only have two choices; either collaborate with the Israeli occupation, or be shamed and humiliated by their own people.

Cast: Ruba Blal, Adeeb Safadi, Atalah Tannous, Raeda Ghazaleh
Awards: Iris Film Prize 2024, Best Short Film at Brooklyn, Oslo, MENA, Al Ard, and more.
More Info: MUBI

Co-presented by:

Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival

Toronto Queer Film Festival

Queers for Palestine

Petra Restaurant, Mississauga

Petra Restaurant
1100 Burnhamthorpe Rd W, Mississauga

Sahtain! Take a culinary trip through Palestine's traditional breakfast cuisine and enjoy a wide array of delicious dishes with our very welcoming TPFF community. Join us on Sunday, September 28 11:00 am for our always popular Sahtain! Brunch at Petra Restaurant. Worth the trip to Mississauga! Tickets are expected to sell fast! Get your tickets as soon as possible to guarantee admission. Vegetarian friendly. Sahtain! Brunch is generously sponsored by Petra Restaurant!

UNSILENCED: Anti-Palestinian Racism Shorts+
TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

The Silence They Taught Us
Screening with: Other Unsilenced films

Director: Paula Sahyoun Genre: Documentary Short Year: 2025
Country: Canada Languages: English, Arabic

TPFF is proud to present three original works created by local Palestinian filmmakers. The films were developed, workshopped, filmed and produced through the 2025 TPFF Film Residency. After an exciting year-long process, TPFF presents the world premieres of these incredible films. Two of the films were produced with the financial support of the Canadian government and the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association in partnership with TPFF to explore the themes of anti-Palestinian racism. The film Exception was added to this collection to round out the understanding of the manifestation of APR, which impacts so many in our community.

Description:
The Silence They Taught Us is an autobiographical documentary short following Paula, a Palestinian-Canadian professional in Toronto, as she confronts the cost of silence in the face of anti-Palestinian racism.

Raised by a father born after the Nakba, exiled to Lebanon and Egypt before coming to Canada, Paula inherited a legacy shaped by displacement, resilience, and caution. She grew up believing that safety lay in education, professionalism, and keeping her Palestinianness private—a strategy born of survival, but one that has distanced Palestinians in the diaspora from each other and from their struggle.

The film explores the systematic suppression and backlash faced by Palestinians and their allies in Canada, revealing how an environment of fear has been cultivated to silence voices, particularly in professional spaces, with the threat of lost livelihoods weaponized against Palestinians in exchange for silence and compliance.

As violence against Palestinians escalates, Paula begins to unlearn the protectionist logic she was raised with, embracing the necessity of being loudly, visibly, and proudly Palestinian—especially in professional environments where silence has long been the norm. Both personal and political, The Silence They Taught Us is a reflection on generational protectionism and a call to action: that reclaiming voice and visibility can strengthen and unite the community in the fight for liberation.

More Info: The Young Won’t Forget

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, and the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association in partnership with Toronto Palestine Film Festival

Co-presented by:

Watermelon Pictures

Regards palestiniens

Arab Canadian Lawyers Association

Independent Jewish Voices Canada

This film will be screening with Paula Sahyoun’s “The Silence They Taught Us”, Rimah Jabr’s “You’ve Seen it on TV”, Rodrigue Hammal’s “Exception” and Sara Balkis’ “Between the Silence & the Noise”

UNSILENCED: Anti-Palestinian Racism Shorts+
TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

Between the Silence & the Noise
Screening with: Other Unsilenced films

Duration: 10 min Director: Sara Balkis Genre: Drama Year: 2025
Country: Canada Languages: English, Arabic

TPFF is proud to present three original works created by local Palestinian filmmakers. The films were developed, workshopped, filmed and produced through the 2025 TPFF Film Residency. After an exciting year-long process, TPFF presents the world premieres of these incredible films. Two of the films were produced with the financial support of the Canadian government and the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association in partnership with TPFF to explore the themes of anti-Palestinian racism. The film Exception was added to this collection to round out the understanding of the manifestation of APR, which impacts so many in our community.

Description:
Julia, a young Lebanese-Canadian journalism student, lives with and cares for her reserved grandfather Antoine. After attending a class on the Lebanese Civil War, she is moved by her professor’s stories and images—especially one photograph of a woman who seems strangely familiar.

Her questions unsettle her professor, who evades answering. Determined to uncover the truth, Julia searches through old documents and photos at home. When her grandfather returns from his evening stroll, Julia reaches out for the first time to ask about his past in Lebanon—and finally learns the hidden fate of her grandmother.

A moving short about memory, silence, and intergenerational trauma.

Cast: Tracy Hawchar, Hanna El-Sayyagh, Petre Batakliev
More Info: Canva site

“This project has been made possible in part by the Toronto Palestine Film Festival during the 2025 Residency”

Co-presented by:

Watermelon Pictures

Regards palestiniens

Arab Canadian Lawyers Association

Independent Jewish Voices Canada

This film will be screening with Paula Sahyoun’s “The Silence They Taught Us”, Rimah Jabr’s “You’ve Seen it on TV”, Rodrigue Hammal’s “Exception” and Sara Balkis’ “Between the Silence & the Noise”

UNSILENCED: Anti-Palestinian Racism Shorts+
TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

You’ve Seen it on TV
Screening with: Other Unsilenced films

Duration: 18 min Director: Rimah Jabr Genre: Dark Dramedy Year: 2025
Country: Canada Languages: English and Arabic with Subtitles

TPFF is proud to present three original works created by local Palestinian filmmakers. The films were developed, workshopped, filmed and produced through the 2025 TPFF Film Residency. After an exciting year-long process, TPFF presents the world premieres of these incredible films. Two of the films were produced with the financial support of the Canadian government and the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association in partnership with TPFF to explore the themes of anti-Palestinian racism. The film Exception was added to this collection to round out the understanding of the manifestation of APR, which impacts so many in our community.

Description:
A graduate student is absurdly interrogated by a stalker and his two assistants over an old social media post. But there are strong similarities to a play he is acting in. As Zain’s interrogation plays out over 18 tense minutes, the line between fiction and reality blurs, and he slowly realizes everything he does is being watched—leaving him to wonder who is truly observing.

The film takes an abstract approach to themes of censorship and erasure, deliberately avoiding specific names, places, or historical events. Zain’s story unfolds within a surreal, theatrical realm, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in its emotional and political currents, untethered from any fixed time or geography—and to question whether he is concealing or revealing the truth.

Cast: Ameer Idreis, Mark Cassidy, Iris Rhian, Aaron White, Nada Abu Saleh, Kari Pederson, Kate Lushington, Robert McNeely.
DoP: Gui Morilha
Awards: Work in Progress Presentation
More Info: Rimah Jabr

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association and Charles Street Video in partnership with Toronto Palestine Film Festival

Co-presented by:

Watermelon Pictures

Regards palestiniens

Arab Canadian Lawyers Association

Independent Jewish Voices Canada

This film will be screening with Paula Sahyoun’s “The Silence They Taught Us”, Rimah Jabr’s “You’ve Seen it on TV”, Rodrigue Hammal’s “Exception” and Sara Balkis’ “Between the Silence & the Noise”

UNSILENCED: Anti-Palestinian Racism Shorts+
TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

Exception
Screening with: Other Unsilenced films

Duration: 32 min Director: Rodrigue Hammal Genre: Drama Year: 2024
Country: Canada, United States Languages: English

TPFF is proud to present three original works created by local Palestinian filmmakers. The films were developed, workshopped, filmed and produced through the 2025 TPFF Film Residency. After an exciting year-long process, TPFF presents the world premieres of these incredible films. Two of the films were produced with the financial support of the Canadian government and the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association in partnership with TPFF to explore the themes of anti-Palestinian racism. The film Exception was added to this collection to round out the understanding of the manifestation of APR, which impacts so many in our community.

Description:
When a leaked video of his lecture goes viral, a Palestinian professor faces a difficult choice: stay silent to preserve his career, or speak out and risk it all.

Through his dilemma, Exception explores the tensions of visibility, professional risk, and the deep personal costs of challenging anti-Palestinian racism in North American institutions.

Cast: Waleed Zuaiter, Matt Biedel, Carla Valentine
Awards: Toronto Shorts International Film Festival
More Info: Watermelon Pictures

Co-presented by:

Watermelon Pictures

Regards palestiniens

Arab Canadian Lawyers Association

Independent Jewish Voices Canada

This film will be screening with Paula Sahyoun’s “The Silence They Taught Us”, Rimah Jabr’s “You’ve Seen it on TV”, Rodrigue Hammal’s “Exception” and Sara Balkis’ “Between the Silence & the Noise”

Gallery, TIFF Lightbox

From the olive tree to the key of return, Palestinian symbols carry powerful stories of identity, memory, and resistance. Co-hosted with Learn Palestine, participants in this interactive workshop for youth, will explore the meanings behind some of the most important Palestinian cultural symbols through conversation, games, art-making.

The workshop kicks off with a gallery walk, where youth will follow clues to match each symbol with its history and meaning. Together, we’ll go over the answers and dive deeper into the stories behind them. Then, we’ll test everyone’s knowledge with a lively round of a trivia game that makes learning fun and collaborative.

Finally, youth get creative by designing their own symbols that they can personalize and turn into something fun that they can wear on their clothes or hang in their room—a unique connection to Palestinian culture and identity.

Recommended ages 8+

Please message tpff.submissions@gmail.com if fees are not unaffordable. 

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

Aisha's Story
Screening with: Visiting the Dead

Duration: 62 min Director: Elizabeth Vibert and Chen Wang Genre: Documentary Year: 2025
Country: Canada, Jordan Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Description:
“Food is the most precious part of Palestinian heritage.” Aisha Azzam and her husband started their family grain mill in Baqa’a refugee camp, Jordan, 35 years ago. She treasures her role in safeguarding culture by milling the wheat, grains, and herbs essential to Palestinian cuisine. Through food, Aisha traces the story of Palestinian displacement and rebuilding family and community in a refugee camp. Harvesting, milling, cooking, and feasts ground the film's arc of displacement, steadfastness and resistance. In Aisha's words, “Food is what keeps us together as Palestinians.”
Aisha’s story intimately captures the loss, beauty, and resistance that define Palestinian lives.

Awards: Hot Docs 2025 (Audience Award); DOXA 2025; Amman Int’l Film Festival
More Info: Aisha's Story

Co-presented by:

Hot Docs

Toronto Arab Film Festival

Planet in Focus

Mayworks Festival

East End Acts for Palestine

Spadina-Fort York for Palestine

Workers Action Centre

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

Visiting the Dead
Screening with: Aisha’s Story

Duration: 35 min Director: Elias Issa Halabi Genre: Documentary Year: 2023
Country: Palestine Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Description:
Visiting the Dead is a documentary that follows Palestinian landowners as they make their annual visits to lands now trapped behind the Israeli separation wall, near the area of Jabal Abu Ghneim—today the site of the Har Homa settlement southeast of Bethlehem. These lands, once accessible and cultivated freely, are now subject to military restrictions and bureaucratic barriers imposed by the settler colonial regime.

The film captures the intimate and emotional return of families to their confiscated lands, offering a window into the lived experience of dispossession. Through personal testimonies and observational sequences, it explores how these yearly visits become acts of resistance, remembrance, and connection to a disappearing landscape.

At the heart of the film are broader themes: the ongoing processes of settler colonization, environmental degradation, the erosion of ancestral ties to land, and the shifting politics of land, identity, and futurity in Palestine. Visiting the Dead offers a grounded perspective on the slow violence of occupation and the resilience embedded in everyday Palestinian life.

More Info: Visiting the Dead – Instagram

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

State of Passion
Screening with: Lulu

Duration: 90 min Director: Carol Mansour & Muna Khalidi Genre: Documentary Year: 2024
Country: Lebanon, Jordan, UK, Kuwait, Palestine Languages: English and Arabic with Subtitles

ALL PROCEEDS FROM THIS SCREENING WILL BE DONATED TO GLIA - MEDICAL SUPPORT IN GAZA. We also welcome donations to the TPFF x GLIA Gaza health fundraising campaign.

Screening will be followed by a Q&A with Dr. Tarek Loubani, member of Glia’s team, and physician serving in Gaza’s hospitals.

Description:
After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance.

With news footage of him pale and shell-shocked reverberating around the world, he spoke of a catalogue of horrors from lacerated bodies, to amputations without anesthetics, orphaned children with no surviving family, and the deliberate targeting of medics and hospital facilities.

This was Ghassan’s sixth and most horrific Gaza “war”. Why does he do it? Where does he find the strength to face it again and again? How does it impact his family? How do they process the risks he takes? The answer lies simply in their shared passion: Palestine, a passion they articulate through their support of his perilous humanitarian work.

Filmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi, close friends of the Abu Sittahs, share that same passion. They were waiting anxiously for Ghassan to emerge from Gaza, following a long and terrifying journey through the night, to meet him in Amman. Determined to capture his raw emotions they began filming him the moment he arrived through the door. Following him to Beirut, Amman, London, Kuwait and Dubai, they and he explore their common State of Passion.

Awards: Cairo Int’l Film Fest: Best Arab Film, Jury Award, Silver Prize for Best Palestinian Film; KARAMA HRFF: Audience Award
More Info: State of Passion

Co-presented by:

Glia - Medical Support in Gaza

Health Workers Alliance for Palestine (HAP)

World Beyond War

Cinema Politica

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1

Lulu
Screening with: State of Passion

Duration: 4 min Director: Labeeb Hanif Shaikh Genre: Drama Year: 2024
Country: India

Description:
Lulu follows 16-year-old Jana Zakarnekh, who returns home from school to find her cat hiding under her bed. After spending the day playing with the cat, she is woken by an unsettling noise. Tragedy strikes when she steps onto her balcony in search of her cat. The film ends with real footage of Israeli military targeting of children.

Gallery, TIFF Lightbox

Before the closing screening of the festival, please gather with us in the gallery in the lobby to mark two years of genocide and 77 years of the ongoing Nakba. 

Since the start of the genocide on Gaza, more than 274 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed. TPFF will host a vigil to honour the martyred journalists of Gaza, the truth-tellers who courageously broadcasted to the world Israel’s atrocities committed against their people. Their courage, love for Gaza, and refusal to be silenced remind us that storytelling is an act of resistance. Together, we will remember them, mourn their loss, and carry their voices forward.

We honour the steadfast humanity of Palestinians in Gaza who teach life amidst the carnage, and we re-commit ourselves to continue advocating for justice for Palestinians.   

Full program will be announced shortly.

TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

This screening will have a rush line. If you are looking for a ticket wait in the rush line. If you have a ticket, your seat will be held until 15 minutes before showtime. After that, we can’t guarantee your spot, and it may be offered to guests in the rush line.

All That's Left of You

Duration: 146 min Director: Cherien Dabis Genre: Drama • Year: 2025
Country: Germany, Cyprus, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jordan, Greece, Qatar, Saudi Arabia Languages: Arabic with English Subtitles

Description:
All That’s Left of You is a powerful multigenerational family saga by Cherien Dabis that traces the enduring impact of the Nakba across three generations of a Palestinian family. The film opens in 1988 in the West Bank, where teenage Noor participates in an uprising. His mother Hanan breaks the fourth wall, guiding viewers back through time to reveal the roots of Noor’s defiance. The story travels to 1948 Jaffa and the Nakba, where Noor’s grandfather Sharif resists fleeing as Israeli forces expel Palestinians from their homes. His son Salim grows up under occupation, navigating the trauma of exile and the weight of a father's choices. The film portrays the personal costs of colonial violence while honoring Palestinian resilience and steadfast humanity. Anchored by an all-star cast, All That’s Left of You offers a rare and deeply emotional portrayal of Palestinian life, history, and memory—told through the lens of family, resistance, and the desire to hold onto what remains.

Cast: Cherien Dabis, Saleh Bakri, Adam Bakri, Mohammad Bakri, Maria Zreik, Muhammad Abed
Awards: Sundance
More Info: Letterboxd

Co-presented by:

Watermelon Pictures

Muslims in Canada Archives

JAYU Festival

Film Workers For Palestine

Another Story Bookshop, 315 Ave Roncesvalles, Toronto

Join The Breach’s Desmond Cole for a conversation with article contributors Sonya Fatah and Pacinthe Mattar about the new book When Genocide Wasn’t News: How Canadian media covered up the destruction of Gaza.

The sharp and searing anthology lays bare the Canadian establishment media’s complicity in the destruction of Gaza.

Published by The Breach, an award-winning independent media outlet, the collection brings together urgent investigations and analysis by leading independent journalists and advocates who set the record straight.

Date: Monday, September 29, 2025
Venue: Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto, ON
Time: 7:00 PM (Doors 6pm)

For more info about the book, visit our website: https://breachmedia.ca/when-genocide-wasnt-news/

Books will be available for purchase for $25.
This event is in partnership with Another Story Bookshop and The Breach.

Speaker bios:

Desmond Cole is an independent journalist and a senior writer with The Breach based in Toronto. His numerous works include print media, podcasts, live radio, documentary film, and his bestselling non-fiction book, The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power.

Sonya Fatah is an associate professor at the School of Journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she teaches media criticism, live journalism, and international journalism. She is the co-lead of the Canada Press Freedom Project, which documents incidents of press freedom violations in Canada and produces qualitative reports, tools, and guides on issues that impact media workers’ capacity to do their job. She has previously covered India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan for publications in the U.S. and Canada, including Global Post, The Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star.

Pacinthe Mattar is an independent journalist, writer, and producer. Born in Egypt and raised between Canada, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E, she spent a decade at the CBC producing for national radio and television programmes. She received a National Magazine Award in 2021 for her feature essay "Objectivity Is A Privilege Afforded to White Journalists.” She was the 2022 Martin Wise Goodman Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

More Info: https://breachmedia.ca/when-genocide-wasnt-news/