Cherien Dabis has always had a gift for blending the personal with the political, but with All That’s Left of You, her third feature as writer-director (and star), she elevates that talent into something truly epic. The film, first shown at Sundance in 2025, and was Jordan’s choice for the Oscar. It feels like a family heirloom passed down through generations—intimate, emotional, and hard to ignore. The story covers from 1948, during the Nakba (when many Palestinians were displaced), up to recent times. It follows one Palestinian family’s life through decades of displacement, occupation, and quiet resistance. Despite dealing with serious topics, it never feels like a history lesson.
The story starts in 1988 in the West Bank, where a teenage boy named Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman) joins a street protest that suddenly turns violent due to government actions. His mother, Hanan (played powerfully by Dabis herself), then begins recounting the family’s story to an unseen listener. The film jumps back and forth between four main periods: the peaceful life in Jaffa before the Nakba with orange groves and poetry; the refugee camp years of the 1970s; the tense atmosphere during the First Intifada; and the echoes of these events in the present day. At the center is the Bakri family—Salim (Saleh Bakri), who is wise and principled; the young Sharif (Adam Bakri); and the late Mohammad Bakri as the elder patriarch, in a heartfelt final role. The performances feel natural and lived-in, reflecting the real bond of a family that has known each other for generations.
What makes All That’s Left of You so powerful is that it doesn’t reduce its characters to symbols of suffering. It openly shows the brutality of displacement and daily humiliations under occupation—some scenes hit hard. But it also highlights human kindness: small acts of love, stubborn humor, and the resilience that keeps the family together even when everything else is lost. The story is about what endures—memories, love, language, and the hope of returning home—even after so much has been taken away.
However, the film’s ambition can sometimes be a bit much. At nearly two and a half hours, the ending feels a little slow, as if Dabis doesn’t want to say goodbye to her characters. A shorter cut might have made the emotional impact even stronger. Still, these are small issues in a film that feels important and necessary.
In a time when Palestinian stories are often simplified or politicized, All That’s Left of You focuses on the specific pain and perseverance of one family. It’s such a moving and well-made drama—heart-wrenching without being manipulative, political without being preachy.
If you care about movies that honestly explore history’s long shadows, you should watch this. All That’s Left of You isn’t just telling a story; it’s bearing witness. And in doing so, it leaves you with the quiet, heartbreaking understanding that some legacies cannot be erased.
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