Where Olive Trees Weep
No one is free until we are all free
The film gives background to the current crisis in Israel/Palestine and brings to light the lives of people we met on our 2022 journey in the occupied West Bank. Their universally human stories speak of intergenerational pain, trauma and resilience. We hope they touch your heart, stir compassion and understanding, and give rise to a pursuit for justice. For without justice, peace remains an empty slogan.
Cinema can be a powerful force for change. Our aim is, beyond mere education, to truly move hearts and minds and inspire audiences to echo the calls for freedom, equality and dignity that have gone unanswered for far too long.
The film is our modest contribution towards our dream for an end to the occupation in Palestine, the attainment of equal rights and fair treatment for Palestinian people, and the spreading of healing for all intergenerational cycles of trauma in the region.
Where Olive Trees Weep
No One is Free Until We Are All FreeIn this audio clip we hear from Ashira Darwish, star of Where Olive Tree’s Weep. The clip starts with her song, “Tatajallah Ashira s Song فلتتجلى” and ends with her voice from the film.
The Guardians
Ancestral Wisdom
Ashira Darwish
Palestinian journalist, trauma healer Jerico (Displaced)Ashira Ali Darwish worked for 15 years as a TV & Radio journalist and researcher in Palestine for the BBC, Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch. She is the founder of Catharsis Holistic Healing, a trauma therapy project pioneering a type of Sufi active meditation which draws its roots from ancestra and Indigenous knowledge.
Gabor Maté
Renowned speaker, teacher and best-selling addiction author Vancouver, CanadaGabor Maté MD is a specialist on trauma, addiction, stress and childhood development. After 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, Dr. Maté worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. For his groundbreaking medical work and writings, he was awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown Vancouver. Gabor also created the Compassionate Inquiry™ psychotherapeutic approach, now studied by thousands of physicians, therapists and counselors in over 80 countries.
Ahed Tamimi
Palestinian Activist Nabi Saleh (displaced)Ahed Tamimi is a Palestinian activist, born and raised in the small West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, which became a center of the resistance when an illegal settlement blocked off its community spring. When, in December 2017, at sixteen years old, she was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier, the video went viral, and Tamimi was arrested and detained for seven months. She was again arrested on Nov 6, 2023 and released on Nov 28 as part of a hostace exchange. The story of Ahed Tamimi has come to embody, in many ways, the wider Palestinian experience under Israeli occupation.
Bassem Tamimi
Ahed's Father, Current political prisoner Nabi Saleh (displaced)Bassem Tamimi is a prominent Palestinian activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. He has a long history of persecution at the hands of Israeli authorities, including more than three years in administrative detention without charge. He was recognized as a Human Rights defender by the European Union after being convicted for organizing protests against settlement encorachment into his village’s lands. Human Rights Watch said the case was based on the coerced incriminating testimonies of minors and Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience.
Narriman Tamimi
Ahed's motherNariman Tamimi is Ahed Tamimi’s mother, a pillar of the Tamimi family, and active member of the culture of resistance. Her brother was killed in front of her by Israeli soldiers.
Amira Hass
Israeli journalist and authorAmira Hass is an Israeli journalist, author and columnist in the daily newspaper Haaretz. She covers Palestinian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, where she has lived for almost thirty years. The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, she is the recipient of many awards for her work including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Neta Golan
Israeli anti-zionist activistNeta Golan is an Israeli Activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, Israelis Against Apartheid, and Return Solidarity. She has actively resisted the occupation, participating in hundreds of demonstrations against the wall and the illegal colonizer roads. She is married and lives in Ramallah with her Palestinian husband.
Helena Beatriz Manrique Charro
Human Rights ActivistHuman rights activitis and pyschologist, UNRWA.
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