EN: Where Olive Trees Weep
PT: Onde as oliveiras choram
(USA, 2024, 103 min)
Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice.
We follow, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. We also witness Dr. Gabor Maté offer trauma-healing work to a group of women who were tortured in Israeli prisons.
Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives.
This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?
Cast & Crew:
Directors: Zaya Benazzo, Maurizio Benazzo
Cinematography: Caroline Campbell, Nickoloz Kachibaia
Composer Armand Amar
Editing: Finley MacNeil
Location Producer: Maral Quttieneh
Production Coordinator: Stacy Simone
Producers: Zaya Benazzo, Maurizio Benazzo, Finley MacNeil
Executive Producer: Ashira Darwish
Production company: SAND (www.scienceandnonduality.com)
Directors’ statement:
The film gives background to the current crisis in Israel/Palestine and brings to light the lives of people we met on our 2022 journey in the occupied West Bank. Their universally human stories speak of intergenerational pain, trauma and resilience. We hope they touch your heart, stir compassion and understanding, and give rise to a pursuit for justice. For without justice, peace remains an empty slogan.
Cinema can be a powerful force for change. Our aim is, beyond mere education, to truly move hearts and minds and inspire audiences to echo the calls for freedom, equality and dignity that have gone unanswered for far too long.
The film is our modest contribution towards our dream for an end to the occupation in Palestine, the attainment of equal rights and fair treatment for Palestinian people, and the spreading of healing for all intergenerational cycles of trauma in the region.
Screenings:
Can you find it? – in Lisbon, 3 August 2026, 21:30 (Talk about Palestine, Gaza, Israel and the Middle East)
CLUE: Within the perimeter of the Mouraria neighbourhood, this screening venue works mainly as a cultural center for the community and has promoted several events on Palestine and the situation in the Middle East over the years.
Why was it selected:
At CLIT, we are fans of Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo’s work since we saw The Wisdom of Trauma, winner of an Audience Award at the first edition of our festival. Therefore, as soon as we heard they were releasing a new film, we became interested. Focused on the relatively recent trauma of the Palestinian people over the last 3 generations, Where Olive Trees Weep features, once more, Dr. Gabor Maté, who conducted a workshop for Palestinian women tending to their trauma after Israeli jail. Moving and informative, it might not be an easy watch for some people, and that is exactly why it should be seen by as many people as possible.