Final Rating: 3.5/5
Since the Nakba, the first great disruption of the Palestinian life in 1948, Israel has controlled the borders and the occupation of the land. Throughout the last seventy-five years, there have been moments of higher combat between the Israeli Defence Forces and Palestinian resistance groups, such as the first and the second intifadas, demonstrations of uprising by Palestinian groups.
Yet, on October 7th, 2023, everything changed. Motivated by the violent action of Hamas towards Israeli citizens, killing them, and kidnapping a hundred others, the far-right government led by Benjamin Nethanyu decided to scale up and start a massacre with genocidal intentions. The result is a country with hospitals destroyed, no university intact, and even a catholic church, adopted by Pope Francis, is rumbling now. In House of Hope by Marjolein Busstra, we follow the aftermath of October 7th through the eyes of a school owner.
In al-Eizariya, a village in the occupied West Bank, near Jerusalem, a couple, Manar and Milad, lead House of Hope, the only Waldorf school in Palestine. The Waldorf pedagogy is a learning style that proposes education through ludic activities in early ages, in the artistry in the 7 to 14 age, and critical thinking upwards.
It focuses on the autonomy of the thoughts of its students. Therefore, the House of Hope is a breath of perspective for a land of destruction. The director, Marjolein Busstra, introduces the school’s daily routine. Children learn about the beauty of life and artistry among the devastation of Palestine, which began in the 1940s, and was pushed by the ethnostate of Israel.
Consequently, for almost forty minutes, we see the love that Manar and Milad feel for those children. The respect of treating them as human beings with their own ideas and personalities, a characteristic that gets diminished by the modern style of education. In this sense, the film is a construction of the contrasts between an ideal education that shapes critical thinking within the territorial limits of a conquered land.
Furthermore there is an element of reflection, the constant element of the land and the presence in the eminence of the Apartheid administration that positions the blockage against the Palestinian. In a sense, there is a beauty to the relationship between the principals of the school and the children, who are the future and descendants of the Palestinian people. The uniforms feature a map of the territory, which is taught from a young age to understand their origins and roots.
Accordingly, there is a tonal shift on October 7th. The risk of destroying everything that the director built and being destroyed by the ethnostate that dominates them. In a sense, films like House of Hope are a reflection exercise, especially because the Defense Forces view schools and universities as a threat, not from the military weaponry itself, but from the exercise of critical thinking.
There is an unweighted violence in targeting children’s schools and the development of the new generation of Palestinians, particularly because Israel decides to fight against Arabs and anti-Zionist individuals.
Ultimately, House of Hope is an exercise in documenting the formation of the next generation of critical thinkers. Meanwhile, the genocidal project aims to avoid that, even if there are actors like Manar and Milad working to provide proper education for all children in Palestine, which should be a human right, not an exception.
House of Hope was seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival. Thank you to the festival for the screener.
