Barbican's Palestine Film Festival promises something for everyone

This year’s Palestine Film Festival promises the usual mix of experimental shorts, features and documentaries, as well as discussions and Q&A sessions with directors, and the occasional older or rare archival film.

This year’s highlights include the festival’s opening film, Eyes of a Thief, a thriller set and filmed in Nablus. It is this year’s Palestine nomination for the Oscars, and stars Egyptian actor Khaled Abol Naga.

Watch our interview with its director, Najwa Najjar, filmed by al-Araby al-Jadeed's Claudia Mateus.

Also showing is Villa Touma, directed by Suha Arraf, a claustrophic, black comedy about three sisters who manage to cling to past arisocratic habits while the second intifada rages outside and Palestinian life is decimated by the occupation.

There will be a screening of the classic two-part documentary The Palestinians (1988) by David Edgar and Taylor Downing. A Q&A is scheduled for after the screening of Part I on Wednesday 3rd December with the producer and special guests, including the Guardian's Middle East editor Ian Black and Channel 4 News Economics Editor Paul Mason.

The festival is screened at the Barbican Centre in London and runs until December 11.