Film

My Neighbourhood

A 25-minute documentary following Mohammed El Kurd, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, as his family faces court-ordered eviction to make room for Israeli settlers. The film captures both the family's resistance and an unexpected alliance with Israeli supporters, including activist Zvi Benninga, who stand against the displacement. It's an intimate, urgent portrait of a neighbourhood in crisis and the ordinary people refusing to accept it.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a close, unhurried look at how a neighbourhood's daily life gets reshaped by a legal process, told through the people living it rather than through a commentator's voice.

Skip it if you want a full history of the conflict or a balanced survey of its politics, since this short film stays tightly with one street and a handful of people.

What it asks of you: At twenty-five minutes it is short and unhurried in its attention, moving at the pace of daily routine and slow legal process while lingering on faces and streets.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Roadmap to Apartheid2012

Released the same year as My Neighbourhood, this documentary zooms out to examine the structures underpinning the occupation itself. If you want to understand why Sheikh Jarrah matters within a larger system, this connects the dots.

But It's polemical and angry in ways that might feel less intimate than watching Mohammed's story unfold. Less room for ambiguity or complexity.

Roadmap to Apartheid poster

The Present2020

A Palestinian director's fiction film about a young couple trying to buy furniture for their future in the West Bank, interrupted constantly by checkpoints and restrictions. It captures the grinding, daily humiliation that documentary alone can't quite convey.

But Fictionalization means less of the documentary's immediacy. Some viewers want only the unmediated truth, not an artist's interpretation of it.

The Present poster

Tantura2022

A documentary investigation into a 1948 massacre in a Palestinian village, told through testimony and excavation. Like My Neighbourhood, it centers Palestinian voices and documents the work of memory and resistance. Longer and denser, but powerful.

But Darker and more traumatic. This film doesn't offer the small glimmers of solidarity that make My Neighbourhood bearable to watch.

Tantura poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from My Neighbourhood

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Hannah Arendt2012

Both ask: how do ordinary citizens become part of an oppressive system, and what does it mean to resist from within? My Neighbourhood shows you people actually doing it; Hannah Arendt shows you the thinking behind why it matters.

A drama about the philosopher's writing on the Eichmann trial and the banality of evil. Released the same year as My Neighbourhood, it's about how ordinary people become complicit in systems of injustice—and why that matters for understanding accountability.

But It's a talky intellectual drama, not a documentary. Long sequences of debate and theory. If you want direct evidence rather than philosophical wrestling, this will feel removed.

Hannah Arendt poster
More like this (4)

West Bank Story2005

A stop-motion musical satire that takes the occupation as its backdrop—absurdist, strange, and darkly funny. A totally different register, but it's asking similar questions about coexistence and how people carry hope when circumstances don't permit it.

But The playful, musical tone might feel inappropriate to some viewers given the real suffering it's referencing. Satire can read as trivializing.

West Bank Story poster

Children of Men2006

Not about the occupation, but about displacement, home, and the question of whether ordinary people can build solidarity across lines that seem impossible to cross. The mood—urgent, intimate, determined—echoes what My Neighbourhood achieves.

But It's a fiction film about a speculative dystopia, so the emotional remove might feel like a dodge if you're looking to stay grounded in documentary reality.

Children of Men poster

Checkpoint

An Israeli documentary about a day in the life of soldiers manning a checkpoint in the West Bank. It's the perspective you don't get in My Neighbourhood—showing the occupation from the enforcer's side, which complicates everything.

But Some find it exploitative or too generous to the soldiers' perspective. After My Neighbourhood's clarity, this ambiguity might feel frustrating rather than illuminating.

Checkpoint poster

Aya of Yop City2013

Both are neighbourhood films, in the literal sense—portraits of how people live together in a specific place. My Neighbourhood shows a neighbourhood under siege; this one shows a neighbourhood thriving. Together they ask: what makes a neighbourhood feel like home?

An animated comedy from Ivory Coast about a young woman navigating life, family, and belonging in a vibrant neighbourhood. Has nothing to do with occupation or conflict—it's joyful, funny, full of life. A palate cleanser and a reminder of what neighbourhoods can be: spaces of possibility rather than struggle.

But Completely different register and geography. If you're looking for continuity with My Neighbourhood's subject matter, this will feel like a redirect. Also a feature, not a short.

Aya of Yop City poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

Killing Gaza, Roadmap to Apartheid