Najwa Najjar

Biography

Najwa Najjar is a Palestinian filmmaker whose feature dramas and documentaries have become fixtures of the international festival circuit and helped establish a distinct voice for Palestinian women in narrative cinema. Of Palestinian and Jordanian descent, she studied economics and political science in the United States before turning to film, and based her production company, Ustura Films, in Ramallah. Her feature debut, "Pomegranates and Myrrh" (2008), centers on a young Palestinian dancer whose husband is imprisoned by Israeli authorities, exploring themes of love, occupation, and a woman's struggle for self-expression. The film premiered at Sundance and traveled to dozens of festivals, marking one of the first internationally distributed narrative features directed by a Palestinian woman. Najjar's second feature, "Eyes of a Thief" (2014), starred Egyptian superstar Khaled Abol Naga and the singer Souad Massi, and was Palestine's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Her later work "Between Heaven and Earth" (2019) used the premise of a divorcing couple's road trip to map the fractured geography and bureaucratic absurdities of Palestinian life under occupation. Before her narrative features she made acclaimed documentaries, including "Naim and Wadee'a" and "Quintessence of Oblivion," works rooted in personal and collective Palestinian memory. Her films consistently foreground women's interior lives against the backdrop of political constraint. Najjar has served on international juries and mentored younger Palestinian filmmakers, and is widely regarded as a pioneer who proved that Palestinian women could direct ambitious, internationally financed feature films.

Why This Person Matters

Najjar is a pioneering Palestinian woman director whose internationally financed feature dramas centered women's experiences under occupation and twice represented Palestine on the world stage.

Historical Context

Najwa Najjar built her filmmaking career in Ramallah during the years of the second Intifada and the fractured Oslo-era reality, establishing her company Ustura Films in a West Bank carved by checkpoints, closures, and military incursions. Her debut 'Pomegranates and Myrrh' (2008) emerged directly from that landscape, centering a dancer whose husband is seized and imprisoned by Israeli authorities, the everyday rupture of occupation rendered as a woman's interior drama. Coming to film after training in economics and political science in the United States, she returned to a homeland where the very logistics of production were shaped by permits and walls. Her later 'Between Heaven and Earth' (2019) literally mapped this geography of bureaucratic absurdity onto a divorcing couple's road trip across a divided land.

Historical Context

1. 1973 — Born in Washington, D.C., United States

Selected Works

• Pomegranates and Myrrh — A Palestinian woman sustains her dreams of dance while her husband is imprisoned by Israeli forces. Najjar's debut feature navigates love, occupation, and identity with lyrical intensity.
• Eyes of a Thief — A Palestinian father returns after fifteen years of imprisonment to find his daughter, navigating a landscape transformed by time and occupation.

Legacy & Influence

Najjar is recognized as a pioneer who proved that Palestinian women could direct ambitious, internationally financed narrative features, at a time when the field was overwhelmingly male. 'Pomegranates and Myrrh' was among the first internationally distributed dramas directed by a Palestinian woman, and 'Eyes of a Thief' twice carried Palestine onto the world stage as its official Academy Award submission. Her films consistently centered women's interior lives against political constraint, expanding the thematic vocabulary of Palestinian cinema beyond direct confrontation. Serving on international juries and mentoring younger filmmakers, she helped shape the institutional ground on which a later generation of Palestinian women directors now stands.

Topics & Themes

• Post-1967

References & Sources

1. Najwa Najjar — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najwa_Najjar
2. Najwa Najjar - IMDb — https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1335080/