3000 Nights

Mai Masri's 2015 film follows Layal, a newly married Palestinian teacher. She is arrested for giving a lift to a young man alleged to have taken part in an attack and is sentenced to eight years. In prison she learns she is pregnant and decides to have the baby. At the centre is a child growing up in prison. Layal has to protect her son and at the same time find a position in the tension between the political prisoners and the Israeli inmates in the wing; both demand constant choices. Masri made documentaries for many years and this is her first fiction feature. The narrative draws on real testimony. The prison scenes are enclosed and repetitive; the sense of duration is the film's main instrument. Who it's for: those who like Palestinian cinema and prison drama. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a two-sided account of the conflict; the film tells it from the Palestinian prisoners' view and does not hide that.