3,000 Nights (2015, Palestine)

3,000 Nights is the tale of a Palestinian woman who is imprisoned for assisting a teenage boy on the run. She is incarcerated in a prison for Palestinian and Israeli women, She finds she is pregnant, but chooses not to have the abortion that she is offered. 3,000 nights is about resilience and hope and determination to survive with her son.

The director, Mai Masri, a mother herself, chose the theme of trying to explore the lives of women behind bars. While the film is set within a highly controversial topic, like all good films, it pushes us beyond our perceptions and preferences. It forces us all to see new things.

The film is based on a true story and was filmed in a real prison with Palestinian and Israeli women prisoners. Masri wrote:

The film presents a shared, albeit unequal, space between Palestinian women and their Israeli counterparts. The Palestinian women are from the center of their society, but the Israelis are from the periphery of Israel's Ashkenazi-dominated politics and culture. They are Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, who suffer their own form of marginalization in Israeli society. We witness animosity, but we also see one Israeli woman aid the Palestinians. How much hope is there for solidarity between these two communities?