Berlinale 2026: Chronicles From the Siege (dir. Abdallah Alkhatib) | Review
Abdallah Alkhatib’s Chronicles From The Siege offers a poignant, vignette-driven meditation on the endurance and fragmentation of Palestinian life under siege, elevated by haunting performances yet ultimately constrained by a script that never fully matches the gravity of its ambition.
Chronicles From The Siege is the second feature film, and debut feature-fiction film, of 37-year-old German based, Syrian-Palestinian filmmaker Abdallah Alkhatib. His first movie, Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege (2021) was lauded with significant critical acclaim, and its follow up has now premiered in the Perspectives section of the 2026 Berlinale. Unlike Little Palestine, which is set in the district of Yarmouk during the Syrian Revolution (the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the world), Chronicles From The Siege is not located in any one specific place – although is purportedly inspired once again by director’s own time in Yarmouk. Chronicles From The Siege instead takes a broader look at reflecting the wider Palestinian experience over many years, rather than naming one specific conflict zone or geographical location.
The film unfolds over a series of vignettes, lingering at first on a group of cinephiles in an abandoned video store, burning VHS’s to stay warm as a bombing campaign begins, moving to men trading broken fridges for one drag of a cigarette, and to a pair of lovers negotiating their sex life in the midst of the siege. As one character states, “I don’t see my life outside the confines of the siege. And I don’t see an end to the siege outside of the confines of my life.” This seems to be the underlying message of the film, with Alkhatib portraying such a multiplicity of stories, and the tiny, quotidian moments of life in a conflict zone. He manages to capture both the universality of the suffering – the way some band together with heartbreaking moments of tenderness and solidarity – alongside moments when collectivism breaks down and gives way to petty crime and hardened, traumatised psyches.
Moments like these, however memorable, unfortunately don’t fully cohere into an emotional whole. The film moves from vignette to vignette with intent, yet without enough depth to anchor us to the characters beyond the immediacy of their suffering. Whilst far from being a bad film, I didn’t feel that Chronicles From The Siege ever quite became a great one. The subject matter is painfully relevant — siege warfare, civilian survival, the slow erosion of dignity under bombardment — yet the script feels thinner than the weight of its themes.
What holds this film together, more than anything, are the incredible performances of certain actors, as well as the vivid realism of the scenography and setting. The actors manage to carry what is often times a stilted script, with Nadeem Rimawi absolutely stealing the show in his stunningly harrowing portrayal of ex-video store owner Arafat who wanders the war torn streets between bombed out buildings and missile explosions as a ghostly spectre of a man. His presence was truly moving – so much so that I left wishing the movie was written for his character alone…
Overall, I admired the aims of Chronicles From The Siege more than feeling particularly moved by the movie as a whole. It’s a film with much to say, and is elevated by strong performances, but was unfortunately a little held back by writing that never quite matches the scale of its ambition.
Our team is on the ground at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, running from February 12th to 22nd, 2026.
