Palestine Cinema Days: Return to Haifa & Foragers Film Screenings

About this event

Join us for Palestine Cinema Days Around the World, a global initiative by Filmlab Palestine that transcends borders to bring Palestinian stories to audiences everywhere, and to stand against their systematic erasure, silencing, and distortion. This year marks the 109th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Through Palestine Cinema Days we gather across continents to confront a history that continues to shape Palestinians present. More than a century after a colonial promise made over Palestinian land and lives, we come together to show: Palestinians are still here. Their stories are still alive. Their voices continue to be heard. A fragile ceasefire may quiet the headlines, but it does not stop the genocide. In Gaza, death continues through siege, starvation, displacement, and abandonment. In the West Bank, Palestinians are confined by Israeli checkpoints, families are being terrorised, olive groves are being destroyed, and settlers are driving Palestinians from their land with violence and impunity. At a time when Palestinian voices are silenced, their suffering is reduced to background noise, and their very existence is contested, cinema becomes more than art; it becomes a means of bearing witness, preserving memory, and resisting erasure. Through Palestine Cinema Days Around the World 2026, we will gather not only to screen films, but to make space for their voices, to listen to their stories, and to affirm that the Palestinian narrative cannot be erased. • When: Tuesday, 3rd November, 4:00 - 9:00pm • Location: 半路咖啡 Halfway Cafe 台北市大安區羅斯福路三段269巷51弄9號 No. 9, Alley 51, Lane 269, Section 3, Roosevelt Road, Daxue Village, Da’an District, Taipei This event is organised by: Plan D & Amnesty International Taiwan English Speaking Group Our Schedule for 3rd November: • 4:00pm - 5:30pm Screening of Return to Haifa • 5:30pm - 7:00pm Dinner break (During the break, we encourage everyone to grab dinner together at a nearby spot, continue conversations about the film and Palestine, and connect with one another. We can then come back for the next screening with new friends, fresh perspectives, and conversations that continue beyond the cinema.) • 7:00pm - 9:00pm Screening of Foragers + Discussion \* We’d love you to attend the full schedule, but you’re welcome to join whichever screenings work best for you. About the films: Return to Haifa《重返海法》 Directed by Kassem Hawal 1982 \| Drama Film is in Arabic, with English subtitles Return to Haifa is based on Ghassan Kanafani’s novel the plot of which takes place in 1967, when Palestinian refugees living in the newly occupied territories had an opportunity to visit the places from which they had been expelled during the nakba. A Palestinian couple go back to Haifa to look for their baby, whom they were forced to leave behind in the war of 1948. They find him grown up as an Israeli adopted son, now a soldier in the Israeli army. Foragers 《野食採集者》 Directed by Jumana Manna 2022 \| Documentary Film is in Arabic & Hebrew, with English and Chinese subtitles Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine with wry humor and a meditative pace. The film interweaves fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on Palestinian foragers. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers capture the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on. 今年是《貝爾福宣言》發表的第 109 週年。一個多世紀前，殖民者的一紙宣言，讓巴勒斯坦人失去了家園。在「全球巴勒斯坦電影日」，我們直面這段至今仍深刻影響巴勒斯坦人處境的歷史，共同宣告，巴勒斯坦人依然在這片土地上生活。 脆弱的停火或許讓巴勒斯坦暫時淡出新聞頭條，但種族滅絕並未停止。在加沙，巴勒斯坦人仍在圍困、飢餓與流離失所中失去生命。在約旦河西岸，巴勒斯坦人受制於以色列設下的檢查哨，橄欖園遭到摧毀，定居者更肆無忌憚地以暴力迫使巴勒斯坦人離開自己的土地。 當