Sameh Zoabi’s quirky comedy is one of 26 premieres to take place at the festival, which runs April 20-May 3.

The 15th London Palestine Film Festival will open with the UK premiere of Man Without A Cell Phone on April 20 with director Sameh Zoabi in attendance.

Zoabi’s feature debut, set in a Palestinian village inside Israel, is one of 26 premieres at this year’s festival, including Mike Hoolboom’s documentary Lacan Palestine.

Hoolboom is one of 25 guest speakers to attend the festival, alongside the likes of Ella Shohat - who will give an illustrated talk of her newly-updated book Israeli Cinema - and director Marco Pasquini, who will be on hand for a panel following a screening of his documentary Gaza Hospital.

A total of 41 films will be shown over the two-week festival with screenings taking place in London at the Barbican Cinema (April 20-25), Khalili Lecture Theatre at the University College London (UCL), (April 26-29) and Darwin Theatre, UCL (April 30-May 3).

The festival will be preceded by three warm-up events, running every Thursday between March 29-April 12, including the UK premiere of Tawfik Abu Wael’s Last Days In Jerusalem with the director in conversation with Ali Jaafar following the screening, taking place on April 12.

There will also be an exhibition of Palestinian video art, with contributions from the likes of Basma Alsharif, Ayreen Anastas and Mona Hatoum, running throughout the festival.

Topics