Annemarie Jacir’s debut feature is a modern love story set in Ramallah, in which the Israeli occupation and its borders violate every aspect of the lives of two young lovers. Soraya arrives in Palestine from Brooklyn with a two-week visa in her U.S. passport. She is carried by the unfulfilled dream of return and her fantasies of reclaiming what the Nakba stole from her grandparents in 1948. When she meets and falls for Emad, a young Palestinian man whose dreams of moving abroad are constrained by the realities of living under Israeli occupation, she confronts the privilege of her own circumstances. The boldness of Jacir’s narrative makes a strong impression: Soraya’s anger emboldens her to snap back at her oppressors at every turn, and even rob a bank to retrieve her family inheritance. And yet her bold actions put her lover Emad at further risk, leaving the audience with open questions about what justice can truly look and feel like for these characters. — MONA DAMLUJI