Beauty in the Struggle

If Birds Believed in God (2025)

Directed by Samer Saifan

The story follows a day in the life of Ismail, a Palestinian photographer whose American upbringing was shaped by his grandfather’s displacement during the 1948 Palestine Nakba. When Ismail’s mother gifts him his grandfather’s keffiyeh—a traditional Palestinian scarf—it triggers an internal struggle between shame and pride in his cultural identity, all unfolding against the ominous backdrop of rising violence against Palestinians.