After cuddling up with one of his dogs, Zeidan Hajib cuts up an ‘akkoub and plant for him to eat later. This is just one of the seemingly mundane images in Foragers, just like scenes later on of sisters cutting up ‘akkoub and za’atar. But nothing is mundane for Palestinians, as acts of subversiveness are subtle while others aren’t. Palestinians have many tradition, including foraging and living off the planet, that the colonialist state tries to police. The documentary captures these, mixing scenes of freedom with reenactments of them dealing with authorities trying to prosecute them with laws that are unjust.

Programmers have screened Foragers both in festival and installation settings, and it is a documentary that demands attention. Conversations here have a performative aspect to it. And sure, maybe I’m leaning on my biases for liking its performativity, but they still point to certain truths. A scene with the older sisters talk about people they know. These people have to get their food from far away. Scenes like this speaks to the effects of some colonialist states like the one imposing their rule above them. That some of those states disperse communities, or that racialization destroys social systems.

Foragers gets just as interesting as Palestinian filmmaker and sculptor Jumana Manna interweaves the interrogation scenes within this documentary. At first, she shoots these scenes in what look like interrogation rooms, these scenes making sense until viewers realize that there’s no way the colonialist state would give access like this. But with each of those scenes, she strips away that artifice. One of these later scenes take place in a hallway where our focus is on Hajib, who tells the camera that he’ll keep foraging until 2050. We hope one day that he and his fellow foragers can with more freedom.

(Editor’s note: Kidding, it’s just me, Paolo, double tasking. I wrote this review before the Hamas attack and the outsized retaliation that the colonialists are inflicting upon Gaza. Click here to buy tickets to the film tonight. And click here if you’re Canadian and ask your local MP to restore the humanitarian corridor in Gaza.)