### All That's Left of You (2025) Spoilers ahead. Two high-budget, high-profile movies about Palestine came out in 2025: *[[2026-01-16 - Palestine '36 (2025)|Palestine '36]]* and *[All That's Left of You](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_That%27s_Left_of_You).* Unlike *Palestine '36* - a historical epic - *All That's Left of You* is personal and intimate; Palestinian history, as felt by a single family, over three generations. The movie moves (mostly) forward and (sometimes) backwards in time, lingering on two main time periods: the [1948 Nakba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba), and the lead-up to the [First Intifada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Intifada). The first bit mostly revolves around Sharif (portrayed by [Adam Bakri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Bakri)) and his family, as they try to hold on to (and are ultimately forced to leave) their home in Jaffa. The film takes its time building Sharif's relationship with his youngest son, Salim. Thirty years later, Sharif (now portrayed by Adam Bakri's father, [Mohammad Bakri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Bakri)) is an elderly Nakba survivor living in a West Bank refugee camp with Salim (portrayed by [Saleh Bakri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saleh_Bakri)), his wife Hanan (portrayed by the movie's director, [Cherien Dabis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherien_Dabis)), and their family. Salim's special bond with Noor, his charismatic son, takes a front seat. The Bakris' casting is a nice touch. Their familial resemblance - their facial features, accents, and mannerisms - help bolster the movie's realism. The rest of the cast does an excellent job, too, especially the young Noor. Though much of the movie was filmed outside of Palestine, the sets are convincing. Jaffa, the refugee camp, Haifa and Tel Aviv - all feel right. Three main crises drive the plot forward, each devastating, in its own way: 1. The first - the 1948 loss of the family home - is of course tragic, but it is also the least personal / character-driven. A sort of educational exposition, in case the audience is unfamiliar with the Nakba, which is fine, but a bit dry. Still, Sharif and Salim's special bond is well-established. The stark contrast between the family's lush and spacious home, surrounded by an orchard, and the refugee camp, where they end up, is also effective. 2. In the second, Salim and his son, Noor, are stopped by Israeli soldiers, who humiliate Salim, forcing him to curse himself and his wife at gunpoint, in front of the child. This leads Noor to lose confidence in, and respect for, Salim, growing distant from him and closer to his patriotic grandfather, Sharif. This was heartbreaking. 3. A few years later, the First Intifada has started; Noor, now a teenager, attends a demonstration, and is shot in the head when Israeli soldiers open fire on the crowd. The injury results in a coma and, after a drawn-out bureaucratic nightmare, Noor is declared brain dead. His parents, Salim and Hanan, decide to donate his organs, even if the recipients are Jewish Israelis. At the very end of the film, we flash forward to 2022; Hanan confronts the recipient of Noor's heart - a Jewish Israeli - urging him to remember Noor, who gave him his Palestinian heart. Enough material for three movies, I think - and that's my main critique. I was particularly moved by the second act; perhaps the movie should have focused on it. Perhaps at the expense of the third. The contrast between the two patriarchs - Sharif in 1948, and his son, Salim, in 1978 - couldn't have been sharper. Sharif, a wealthy cosmopolitan, was proud, graceful, and confident; a principled nationalist who was willing to risk his family to save their home. On the other hand, Salim - raised in a refugee camp, traumatized by the loss of their family home - sacrifices his pride in order to protect his child. The third act was good, but it doesn't have the same impact, in my opinion. Despite its lack of focus, *All That's Left of You* is an excellent movie. I prefer its intimate storytelling to *Palestine '36*'s epic dramatization. It manages to tease out nuanced emotional dynamics that many Palestinians will surely find familiar, above all the physical and emotional tolls of holding on, and the costs of letting go.