The Palestinian Animated Films programme of the ReA Festival 2026. A day in the tent by Haneen Koraz (3:56 min) A charming family of 9 struggle to fulfil their daily chores whilst living in a tent city in Gaza in a time of war. Made by 19 children from the refugee camp in Deir al-Balah (displaced from Gaza City). Ayny by Ahmad Saleh (11:00 min) Two young boys run away from their mother’s protection and slackline on the danger of war to play music with the instrument they always dreamt to have. Memory of the land by Samira Badran (12:50 min) Palestine. A body is trapped at a checkpoint; an essential mechanism of the Israeli occupation. The body is pierced by structural and physical violence, which is aggressive and arbitrary and prevents and attacks its free movement and existence. Through the eye of the needle by Shireen Abdel karim (4:53 min) A personal project with a communal impact, this film aims at transforming individual memories of suffering into a collective memory. It portrays both satirical and realistic scenes from public spaces in Gaza City. The project addresses a range of social issues that have persisted and recurred over the past 15 years, becoming an inseparable part of the city's fabric and the lives of its residents. It also explores the conceptual landscape of Gaza through the digitization and 3D modeling of these spaces – structures that continue to expand as the blockade endures. This is an attempt to envision how the current natural space might appear. No body by Hudaib Mssalam (6:45 min) After an airstrike destroys their home, a newlywed husband survives only as a sentient head. Through stylized stop-motion animation, the film follows the protagonist’s surreal journey with his wife and newborn son. Limitless by Amal al Nakhala (4:38 min) The harsh symbolism captures the complexities of truth in Gaza, where nothing is straightforward or easily defined. Check point by Jana Kattan (5:46 min) Set in the occupied territory of modern-day Palestine known as the West Bank, Checkpoint follows 11 year old Leila, who wakes up before dawn every morning to try to get to school on time. Her obstacle is the notorious checkpoint she must cross every day to get to her school. Despite Leila’s best efforts to prepare, she cannot control the seemingly endless queue, or the strong possibility she will be randomly denied access to the other side. Hide & Seek by Rami Abbas (7:14 min) It is a story of a child and his fish set on their journey into the unknown, following the raid on the child’s town during the ongoing war ravaging his country. The film captures the steps of this journey and its transformations, concluding as the child reaches one of the coasts. Mariam by Dana Durr (5:00 min) A young woman climbs into her favorite olive tree, savoring moments of her precious paradise — as she witnesses the destruction of a beloved tree, a broad and unbreakable bond is illustrated through motifs of olive and cypress trees embroidered in this heartfelt film about the unity of people and their land. Loaf of bread by Tayseera Al Aqad (0:26 min) This animation portrays the struggle for survival under famine in Gaza, where even reaching for a loaf of bread can cost your life. Many young people were targeted and shot while merely trying to retrieve flour from aid trucks or return to their abandoned homes in search of food they left behind during forced displacement. Dry fire by Khaled Jarada (2:20 min) The work explores the in-betweenness of witnessing live-streamed world-annihilating violence from exile, where one is not in the midst of turmoil, yet cannot be detached from the “I”. The work conveys a loaded silence; the voice unable to cry out, the body unable to act, a tension captured in the work’s title, Dry Fire. The wind by Shada Safadi (5:28 min) Trying to hold onto something that escapes me: a deep helplessness in the face of Gaza under siege. It carries a Braille love letter on a cloud made of salt “Noon Qatna” , a rare cloud once read as a sign of blessing. But here, it also carries protection, and the weight of loss . Concrete sky by Basel Nasr (5:43 min) The daily journey the balloon girl takes, witnessing the effects of the apartheid wall, as it separates children from their schools, families from each other and people from their land.