by Kylie Conner-Sax
The following site is a guide to the history of Palestinian and German cinematic co-production, beginning with the formation of the PFU in Beirut and DEFA in East Germany and ending in the present day. I selected this topic because in January of this year I became a German citizen through Germany’s holocaust repatriation program. I received this citizenship because my stepmother’s ancestors fled Germany in the 1930s as the holocaust worsened. Though I am not related to them by blood, she legally adopted me when I was 13, and thus I was eligible. As a documentary filmmaker I was excited- European funding is highly sought after and can be much easier to get if you are a citizen. Germany in particular gives out many grants. However, I am also aware of Germany’s staunch support of Israel and their censorship of pro-Palestinian speech and action. In the speech given at the German consulate before we received our paperwork, the consul general referenced October 7th. This project is an attempt for me to understand the complex system of co-production which I may someday participate in–what model do we have now and is it the best one? How could this model impact the work I aim to produce? How does this model impact the work of filmmakers living outside the Empire?
What began as curiosity about the potential constraints placed upon Palestinian filmmakers seeking funding from Germany became an investigation into different co-production models and their effects on the colonized nations that are reliant on funding from the Empire. For a brief overview: the history of Palestinian and German film co-production can be divided neatly into two sections: pre and post 1989, or before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is because, before the reunification of Germany, the PLO had a strong working relationship with the GDR, specifically through their respective filmmaking organizations the Palestine Film Unit (PFU/PCI) and DEFA. West German co-productions existed as well, but rather than being institutionalized, they were closer to the model that we see today: Palestinian filmmakers were known to collaborate with West German production companies. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, DEFA was privatized and its studios were sold. Today, Germany remains one of the two largest producers of international films in Europe (the other being France) and this extends to Palestine. However, film scholars note that the European model of co-production can be likened to a colonial form of dependency in the sense that German production companies expect not only a return on investment but also that the money granted to international co-productions is spent within the state in which it is granted. Being that they are required to hire German crew and rent German cameras anyway, Palestinian (and other Arab) production companies are de-incentivized from purchasing their own equipment or hiring too many crew members. Furthermore, in order to have films produced in Germany, Palestinian filmmakers must, to a certain extent, tailor their content to German sensibilities. This blog post will delve into the ways in which East German-Palestinian co-production differed from German-Palestinian co-production today, specifically in the categories of funding allocation and the content/form of the films produced.
Federal Filmmaking apparatuses in/of occupied Palestine and East Germany
PFU: The PLO’s film arm was called the Palestine Film Unit (PFU) and then the Palestine Cinema Institution (PCI). It was founded in 1969, coming out of the Fatah movement, and operated out of the Palestine Research Center in Beirut. They were active until the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982 when Israel raided the Palestine Research Center (explored in A Fidai Film, 2024). Afterwards, the members scattered, mostly to other Arab states. It has been exceedingly difficult to find the stolen archives of the PFU– some were in the directors’ possession and a number were found in the archives of the Italian Audiovisual Archive of the Democratic Workers Movement (AAMOD)– but much of the work remains untraceable. As a result, it’s difficult to say for sure what kind of films they primarily produced, but from what I’ve gathered they were focused on documentary filmmaking with revolutionary aims. They received support in the form of resources and scholarships from East Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Italian communist party.
DEFA: Beginning as a Soviet joint-stock company in 1946, DEFA was slowly absorbed into the East German government after the state was established 1949 and became a media apparatus of the state. It was active until 1990, when it was privatized as a result of the reunification of Germany. DEFA controlled a number of studios, including the famous Studio Babelsburg. DEFA greatly supported the PFU, providing them with greatly needed resources and offering many scholarships to PFU artists. In 1975, DEFA also granted the PLO access to the State Film Archive of the GDR. The cinematic style of DEFA films is often likened to Newsreel and Socialist Realist filmmaking.
Since the PLO was a revolutionary organization and the DEFA was the state media apparatus of a communist state, their relationship was a highly formalized element of a greater political alliance and served a distinct political goal, reflected in the type of work that was produced. The PLO had a dedicated film delegate, Marwan Salamah, based in Berlin. Because Salamah was non-German, he was also able to travel across the Berlin Wall and collaborate with West German artists. The GDR also granted the PLO access to the state film archive in 1975, which contained archival footage of Palestine previously unavailable to the stateless PFU. From Palestine and Palestine–A People’s Record were created from this footage. PFU artists frequently received scholarships and training the GDR as well as access to professional equipment and studio space. While research would suggest that PFU/DEFA collaborations still involved bilateral co-production treaties, the context of the political alliance between the GDR and PLO places a different, and less extractive, framework on these collaborations.
Non-exhaustive list of films made as a result of collaboration between DEFA and the PFU:
- Away From Home (1969), Kais Al-Zubaidi
- Heyda Mourad, I Am Not a Dreamer (1982), Mahmoud Khalil
- …From the Olive Tree (1986), Marwan Salamah
- From Palestine (1975), Rafiq Hajjar
- Palestine–A People’s Record (1984), Kais Al-Zubaidi
- The Children of Palestine (1980), Kurt Teztlaff
- Aida (1985), Marwan Salamah
- Return to Haifa (1982), Kassem Hawal*
- Why Do We Plant Roses…Why Do We Carry Arms? (1978), Kassem Hawal
Non-exhaustive list of films made as a result of co-production between the PFU and West German entities:
- Land Day (1976) Ghaleb Shaath
- Rashidiya–Scenes From a Palestinian Refugee Camp (1977) Manfred Vosz
- Children of Palestine (1979) Monica Maurer & Samir Nimr
- Freedom–What Do I Mean? (1981) West German Collective
- The Road to Palestine (1985) Layaly Badr
After the fall of the Berlin Wall: Co-production Under Capitalism
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the war in Lebanon significantly impacted the working relationship between Palestinian and German film production entities. What few resources the PLO had in Lebanon were gone, and DEFA was privatized. With the creation of the European Union, the middle east became collective Europe’s direct neighbor rather than a distant land. Middle Eastern film scholars argue that film production in the MENA region today is characterized by dependency on European entities, particularly France and Germany. While these states have a wealth of funding available to foreign filmmakers and producers, they come with strings attached.
Since European film funds and the intra-European co-production system was originally established to strengthen the European filmmaking economy against Hollywood dominance, these film funds are ultimately moneymaking ventures. The following are two quotes from German film scholar Irit Neihardt, who has written extensively on the relationship between German and Palestinian film production:
“If, for example, a Palestinian film-maker approaches one of the funds, s/he not only has to spend the 100–150 percent of the money in the respective German region, as far as Medienboard is concerned the money also has to be spent on production costs only, not post-production (editing and mixing).” (38)
“From an economic perspective, transnational film co-production is one player in imperialist globalization (see Amin, 2006). As shown above, the funding system demands that the South adapts to the North. Co-produced films need to fit European market demands according to funding guidelines. The same policies require technology to be operated by the European crews. In this way, the funding system accelerates dependency and fosters imbalances.” (39)
While it is impossible to quantify the effect that this dependency has had on Palestinian cinema, Neihardt notes that middle eastern films exhibited in Europe often deal with a “lack of democracy” or involve a critical lens on Islam. Because of the requirements for returns on investment, co-produced films are primarily screened in Europe as the cost to exhibit them in the Middle East is highly preventative. As a result, these films play primarily to Western audiences.
Prominent Examples of Palestinian films co-produced with Germany:
- Wajib (2017), Annemarie Jacir
- Once Upon A Time In Gaza (2025), Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser
- Gaza Mon Amour (2019), Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser
Note: there are many, many more examples but this information is exceedingly difficult to find, especially while abstaining from using AI search results.
Palestine-focused film initiatives (festivals, production companies, distributors) based in Germany
Works Cited:
Anani, Rana. “Insurgent Archives: Palestinian Cinema and Solidarity – Senses of Cinema.” Sensesofcinema.com, May 2025, www.sensesofcinema.com/2025/enduring-frames-cinema-solidarity-palestinian-resistance/insurgent-archives-palestinian-cinema-and-solidarity/.
“History at a Glance.” Defa-Stiftung.de, 2026, www.defa-stiftung.de/en/defa/history/history-at-a-glance/. Accessed 4 May 2026.
Khadijeh Habashneh. Knights of Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, 11 May 2023.
Mitric, Petar. “The European Co-Production Treaties: A Short History and a Possible Typology.” European Film and Television Co-Production, 2018, pp. 63–82, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97157-5_4. Accessed 5 Jan. 2023.
Neidhardt, Irit. “Untold Stories.” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, vol. 7, no. 2, 1 Oct. 2010, p. 31, https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.142. Accessed 4 May 2026.
“Palestinian Cinema.” Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question – Palquest, www.palquest.org/en/highlight/32840/palestinian-cinema.
SERIES POLITICS of the IMAGE: COLLABORATIONS between the PALESTINIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT and the TWO GERMANIES. 2025, https://iritneidhardt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Dateien_Links/AFA_05_06_2025Calendar_POLITICSOFIMAGE.pdf