A rare and intimate look at life under settler colonial-rule, Occupied (2020), directed by Hyderabad-based Pranav Pingle Reddy, was screened in Bengaluru on February 15 at the (CSI) Christ The Saviour Church in Yeshwanthpur. The 121 minute documentary serves as an archive of artistic subcultures in the West Bank and the hole-in-the-wall spaces they thrive in. Now streaming on MUBI, its placement alongside films on the Holocaust and neo-fascist regimes since WWII, underscores the ironies of history repeating itself.
The documentary features the creative resistance from an array of Palestinian artists in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has faced several uncertainties since being filmed in 2017-18. The footage was smuggled out in two sets—one by an unnamed Jordanian contact, the other by a crew member who passed as just another backpacker. Apart from exhausting the filmmaker’s personal savings, the production survived several covert Israeli attempts to block the film in India too. The film has since been shortlisted at premier film-festivals globally, emerging as an award-winning chronicle of cultural defiance in the West Bank.
Through a striking blend of candid realism, spoken-word performances and raw testimonies, Occupied (2020) reveals the narratives of a people unwilling to surrender their voice, while being constantly under siege. Pranav Reddy, known for his investigative documentaries on chronic social ills in India, adopts a style that allows the subjects to dictate the flow of the story, making their testimonies deeply personal and politically powerful.
The director told TNM that a number of film festivals in India were uncomfortable to screen the film, and on investigating further he found influential figures in the festival circuit with links to Israeli state-backed funding. Pranav Reddy insists this film happened because he didn’t fall for false propaganda around him about Palestine - “this film is to counter the false image of Palestinians as barbarians by showing their artists, storytellers and intellectuals”. Indeed, Occupied (2020) presents a spontaneous, ground-level view of Palestinian artists, who turn to their practice as acts of defiance.
Running through some iconic shots of Palestinian heritage, landscape and its infrastructure of occupation, the film opens with artists from the under-ground music scene in the West Bank. A subculture which appears to be kept alive in hideaways – most often in spaces without windows – where lyrics of resistance, love and aspiration meet a range of intercultural music.
Among the born-in-exile artists featured in the film is Shadi Zaatan, a songwriter and pub owner in Ramallah. He says: “I can’t define it, I don’t know what freedom is, but it is definitely the opposite of everything here...” Zaatan’s pub is a hideaway for those looking to enjoy a few drinks and music without judgement, a sanctuary for musicians and other regulars to come together and sing their hearts out. “The world has reduced us to 3 minutes on the evening news, they have moved on because they have assigned a role to us and the world is ok with it,” he explains.
That sentiment echoes throughout the film, from a people trapped not just by the physical barriers of occupation but by an international indifference that perpetuates their erasure. Occupied is full of testimonies that articulate a resistance ready to endure a multi-generational occupation, with profoundly simple philosophies based on ultimate survival.
From an unventilated studio room in Ramallah’s Qalandiya refugee camp, the featured rap collective Sa’aleek express their disobedience through performing Arabic lyrics to slick Retro and Jazz-Rap sounds. The wackiest of the 3-member group, Mohammad Silwadi from Sa’aleek asserts “I don’t see myself as an artist, just a translator for our people”. Sa’aleek embodies resistance-rap with the same untrained brilliance seen during the genre’s emergence among African-americans in the 1980s. Tyseer Qatom, from the group says “Our lyrics speak for all those people whose stories are forgotten here.. So don’t forget us, not as Sa’aleek, but as an entire people”.
At present, Israel’s illegal-occupation of Palestine is the world’s oldest ongoing military occupation by a foreign power. As Israel’s most loyal ally, the United States is the only country to recognise those illegally-occupied territories as part of Israel. The situation is regarded by experts of geo-politics as the conflict that divides the world.
A filmmaker featured in the documentary Muhanned Halawani, who co-founded the Palestine Film Club, condemns Israeli settlers in the West Bank: “You people are destroying 5000 year old olive trees that were here even before the idea of Israel-Palestine..You are destroying mother nature and playing with the rules of the earth”. Olive trees that are central to Palestinian culture, are among a long list of at-risk symbols of tangible and intangible cultural assets.
From the filmmaker’s perspective, Occupied serves as an urgent call to document these acts of violence, not just as historical records but as living testimonies of a people refusing to disappear. The film’s relevance extends beyond Palestine, resonating with struggles against colonialism and systemic oppression worldwide.
Estimates from the UN and other agencies indicate that over 80% of the nearly 15 million Palestinians worldwide have been displaced since the occupation began more than 70 years ago. Nearly half of them are refugees in foreign countries, while over 60% of those still living in Palestine are internally displaced. Shaadi Zaatan describes the experience of a Palestinian who has been displaced several times, “You become an expert in goodbyes and not making too much relation with people or places, because you may be leaving soon”
Israel’s military actions have led to one of the highest civilian death tolls in the post-World War era, with a majority of casualties being women and children. While those actions are an assault not just on the future but on Palestinian memory itself, the film doesn’t rely on sensationalism but instead captures quiet, everyday moments of resilience, showing the occupation’s psychological toll can be all the more haunting.
Perspectives on oppression
Director Pranav Reddy, who joined the post-screening discussion via web call recounted: “After we entered Palestine it seemed like a magical place, I had never met such phenomenal, welcoming and warm people, it was evident that they are much more than the media projects”. On a question about the real-threats to such projects, Reddy insists that “as storytellers it is important to tell the difficult stories of silenced people.”
Palestinian-American playwright Ismail Khalidi (joined-online) contextualised the film’s depiction of cultural erasure, stating, “Palestine is a lab for the modern colonial project of subjugation, a lab for preserving exploitative power everywhere...Even the global tech-Oligarchies (Meta, Twitter, Google) create their censorship models based on the censorship of Palestine—those tactics need to be investigated..”
Khalidi also pointed out that Israel commits intentional destruction of cultural heritage, which goes beyond demolishing ancient sites—it extends to the targeting of artists, intellectuals, and critical voices, as well as the appropriation of Palestinian heritage, particularly of food, music and clothing.
Beyond the artistic resistance documented in Occupied, the discussion also touched on the broader realities of the occupation. The Israeli military tightly controls Palestinian movement, restricting entry and exit while regulating daily life through a vast network of checkpoints. Even the flow of basic resources such as food, water, and electricity is dictated by Israeli authorities, who reportedly frequently block supplies as a form of collective punishment.
With long-standing, unconditional support and aid from the NATO countries – led by the USA-UK alliance – Israel continues its occupation through military force, illegal-settlement expansion, and systemic policies of apartheid, severely restricting Palestinian sovereignty and basic human rights. With the West Bank divided into three zones with escalating levels of Israeli control, Gaza remains, as many activists call it, “the world’s largest open-air prison.”
Connecting Occupied to colonial histories and India
Panelist (Rev) E Immanuel Nehemiah, a Dalit theologian and poet, condemned the systemic oppression of Palestinians and called out the cruelty of the Israeli regime. Commenting on the predominance of pro-Israeli sentiment in India, he cited the rise of a “Zionist Christianity” in India, where many Christian groups align with Israeli state narratives, ignoring the suffering of Palestinians. “The churches of South India are casteist, patriarchal, racist, and remain lingually and regionally divided,” he alleged.
(Rev) Dr Rohan Gideon, a Professor of Christian Theology, said that even peace-loving Indian Christians tend to automatically side with the Israeli reading of Biblical history, without considering the Palestinian perspective. His perspective had evolved after a 40-day visit to the Holy Land, where he witnessed firsthand the conditions Palestinians endure under Israeli settler-colonial rule.
With anti-Muslim rhetoric in India at its peak, by association many Indians today welcome Israel’s actions. Responding to pro-Israeli Indians, Director Pranav Reddy asks: “As a formerly-colonized people, can Indians really accept the colonial apartheid policies and the destruction of life that Israel commits.?”
A message of hope
As the discussion concluded, Khalidi referenced the long history of colonial resistance, reminding the audience that Palestine’s struggle against the British predates the Israeli occupation. He urged viewers to resist the false equivalence between global Islamic terrorism and the struggle for Palestinian self-determination. His words echoed those of the film’s featured artists, who insist that remaining, rebuilding, and remembering are all forms of resistance.
On the targeted erasure of Palestinians from their lands and heritage, Khalidi added. “Like many settler-colonial states in the past, the Palestinian condition is a situation where returning to rebuild your destroyed home or growing a few crops is a form of cultural resistance. Passing on our stories, remaining attached with displaced kin or those in prison is a form of resistance..”
Occupied (2020) offers a poignant look into the thriving mindset of Palestinian artists—how their tenacity, love for life, and cultural identity remain unconquerable amid the absence of hope. As an ode to the Palestinian cause, Khalidi closed the discussion by quoting Irish revolutionary Bobby Sands who said “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.”.
Occupied (2020) was originally a 5-part web-series that was released episodically between 2020-22. The film has won awards at the Bushwick Film Festival and the Flickers' Rhode Island International Festival (2021) and was an official selection at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.