In “Palestine 36,” director Annemarie Jacir recounts a year of Arab revolt against British colonial rule that she says is crucial to understanding current events in the Middle East.

“You can’t understand where we are today without understanding 1936,” Jacir told AFP a day after the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Palestinian filmmaker, who lives in the Israeli city of Haifa, was motivated to make the film, in part, to redress a lack of awareness about the consequences of British policies during the so-called mandate period, before Israel’s creation in 1948.

“I wanted to really point the finger at the British,” she said.

The film features a mostly Arabic-speaking cast, including Hiam Abbass from HBO’s “Succession,” and Jeremy Irons as a British high

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