Spanning decades of Palestinian history, All That’s Left of You highlights the resilience of multiple generations of one family as they endure occupation, displacement, discrimination, and tragedies from 1948 to 2022.
The film opens in the 1980s with Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman) joining a protest, which quickly turns violent when occupation forces arrive, setting the stage for the film’s exploration of ongoing resistance. This pivotal moment prompts Hanan (Cherien Dabis) to recount her family’s history, connecting past and present struggles.
As viewers are brought back to 1948, we meet Hanan’s father-in-law, Sharif (Adam Bakri), experiencing life in Jaffa when Zionist militia begins wreaking havoc in Palestine. Living peacefully in his family home, tending to an orange grove, Sharif’s contentment is shattered as he faces expulsion from his home and forced labour, illustrating the personal toll of displacement.
When we meet Salim (Saleh Bakri) as an adult with children and a wife of his own, we hope things will be different for him. However, we know that isn’t the case. He hasn’t been able to return to Jaffa with his now elderly father, Sharif (Mohammed Bakri). Salim and Hanan do their best, but there’s never any rest or peace while living under occupation. Any sense of normalcy is quickly erased by things such as a change in curfew while going to pick up a prescription, and being illegally stopped at gunpoint by the occupation forces, all while his young son, Noor, watches on.
When audiences meet Noor again as a teenager, he’s with a friend and trying to impress a girl he has a crush on. He should be in school, but classes are currently being held in secret in case the armies do what they did in Jenin and destroy the school – another form of oppression by the occupation. We see Noor doing things most teens get up to, but then we are back at that fateful protest day, when the family’s lives are turned upside down even further.
As viewers cycle through different eras alongside the family, it’s clear that over all this time, nothing has truly changed. Of course, the passage of time creates new issues, but the struggle for peace and freedom endures. Over the course of three generations, the family faces immense dehumanization. Not every dehumanizing moment is a violent one, as seen in a moment where a Jewish family is carrying their luggage into the home that once belonged to a Palestinian family. At the same time, Sharif is forced to watch on and move the furniture out. This was the reality of Palestinian families then, and it’s the same reality being lived now. It’s a cyclical torment and violence that spans generations, affecting thousands of families.
However, despite the terrifying conditions, there are instances of joy – like a moment of poetry and orange picking, a wedding celebration, and waiting for a new addition to the family. This joy amidst all the chaos the world could throw at the family shows the family’s resilience. Joy is also a form of resistance.
While the film gives a history lesson, it’s also a character-driven exploration of a singular family and all they’ve endured. Writer-director Cherien Dabis expertly depicts the intergenerational trauma as it travels from Sharif to Salim and from Salim to Noor, with Hanan’s voice as the connective tissue. Throughout the film, Dabis consistently underscores the characters’ humanity in All That’s Left of You. The importance of this is plain, as dehumanization is a tool of the oppressor. It is easy to completely disregard people and their rights and freedoms when they are othered or seen as less than. Dabis makes sure there is no way this can happen, tackling every aspect of this film with a passionate, reflective eye.
All That’s Left of You should leave you heartbroken and angry. However, the moments of happiness peppered throughout the story serve as a hopeful throughline that things can and must change. Dabis shares the experience that is the reality for many Palestinians who’ve been displaced, dispossessed and killed. With poignant and powerful perfomances throughout, All That’s Left of You is a difficult watch, but also a wholly necessary one.
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