Like Twenty Impossibles

Artfully shot to resemble a raw reportage documentary, Annemarie Jacir’s career-making graduation thesis short is a thriller about the everyday struggles of Palestinians. Reem Abu-Sbaih plays a fictionalized version of Jacir, a tenacious film director leading a small team on a taxi journey from the West Bank to Jerusalem, their plans disrupted by roadblocks, detours and hostile military interrogations. Part gritty drama, part visual poem, LIKE TWENTY IMPOSSIBLES won multiple prizes while making history as the first short from the Arab world—and the first film by a Palestinian female director—to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival.