Actress, director, producer, and screenwriter Cherien Dabis discusses her career, from directing shows like Ramy, Mo, and Only Murders in the Building to writing, directing and acting in her monumental new Palestinian film, All That's Left of You. She reflects on the profound impact of her first trip to Palestine as an eight-year-old, where experiencing harassment and humiliation by Israeli soldiers served as a political awakening that shaped her life and career. She discusses her early life growing up Palestinian in Ohio, her experience with a camcorder as a child, and how the First Gulf War crystallized her decision to become a filmmaker to tell authentic Palestinian stories and challenge the dehumanizing stereotypes in Western media. The conversation dives into the creation of All That's Left of You. She shares the immense emotional and logistical challenges of making the film, particularly during the ongoing genocide, and the surreal experience of recreating historical scenes, and scenes of displacement and military violence that were simultaneously unfolding in the news. Cherien explains the film's focus on the intergenerational impacts of psychological violence, harassment, and humiliation, using the family dynamic across decades to show how the Nakba is a continuing catastrophe. She also addresses the reality of Palestinian films facing suppression from Hollywood gatekeepers, while celebrating the historic moment of Palestinian cinema breaking through. This episode was recorded on December 17, 2025. Our community lost the giant Mohammad Bakri who plays the grandfather in the film a few days later, on December 24. Where to Watch 👉 https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/all-thats-left-of-you 0:00 Introduction 2:05 The Director's Political Awakening: Becoming Palestinian 10:07 From a Camcoder in Ohio to Filmmaking: Bridging Two Worlds 13:06 The First Gulf War and the Power of Film 16:55 The Legacy of Ramy, Mo, and Her Other Work in TV 21:47 All That's Left of You: The Culmination of a Life's Work 25:39 Recreating 1948: Undoing the Myth of a Land Without a People 28:39 The Four Time Periods of All That's Left of You 37:39 Your Humanity Is Also Resistance 38:13 Directing a Family: The Intergenerational Scenes 42:08 The Mind Game of Directing and Acting in the Same Scene 45:20 Recreating Palestine Outside of Palestine 50:06 Art Imitates Life: Filming During the Genocide 54:03 Hollywood's Suppression of Palestinian Stories 59:00 The Historic Moment of Palestinian Cinema Cherien Dabis is a critically acclaimed Palestinian film and television director, writer, and actress. Born in the U.S. and raised in Ohio and Jordan, Dabis studied film at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for the groundbreaking episode “The Boy From 6B” on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. She wrote and directed her debut feature Amreeka which premiered at Sundance in 2009 and went on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. Dabis is known for standout episodic directing work on Emmy award-winning television shows such as Ramy and Ozark. She wrote, directed, produced and acted in All That's Left of You (2025), which is nominated for an Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category. Hosted by Yazan Kopty 👉 https://instagram.com/yazankopty Yazan Kopty is a writer, researcher, and community archivist. Shaped by his background as an oral historian, his practice aims to gather polyphony of voices and transform memory into a force for resistance, reckoning, and reconciliation. Since 2018, Yazan has been a National Geographic Explorer and lead investigator of Imagining the Holy, a community-based archive project indigenizing historic photographs of Palestinians and their homeland and activating them as sites of gathering, reconnection, and new cultural production. 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We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
