One of the oldest tropes in settler colonial discourse is that the natives "breed" in unnaturally high numbers, without a care for how they will feed and clothe these newborns, without having any plans for their future. And when the settlers then inflict violence on the natives on the land, the lives they end do not count, as they did not count when, according to colonialist logic, being conceived, or when growing up. This is what we have been witnessing for decades in Palestine, Israelis portraying Palestinians as savages who do not care for human life – not the settlers’, not their own, not their children’s and so they can be murdered with impunity. Only the latest leg of the genocide has woken the world to the fact that the picture Israel has been servicing to the world may not be correct.

"For Life," directed by Ahmed Seven and produced by Aslıhan Eker, is a documentary that takes this understanding of the "worthless Palestinian life" to task by telling us the story of a Palestinian woman, Hind, who is going to great lengths to conceive a child. The filmmakers have found a true treasure in Hind as she is the embodiment of the Palestinian who has discovered that in an "international order" that has abandoned her, her only interlocutor is God. We are all familiar with Palestinians saying "praise be to God" in all unimaginably difficult situations, but in her predicament, Hind takes it to another level. Her face is the face of unbreakable determination and when she breaks down and cries, her concern is that she has broken her covenant of trust with the Almighty.

Quite early in the film we discover that Hind’s husband is in prison for life and so conceiving a child will be possible only through the desperate method of smuggling – one of the characters in the film warns us not to say smuggle but liberate – sperm from the prison. It is a method of conceiving that seems to be part of urban legend and the documentary "For Life" shows us how real it is and acquaints us with the many obstacles to this venture. The viewer learns quickly that there is already a number of women who have managed to have a child this way and can provide Hind with moral support.

Hind, with her big headscarf, long overcoat, backpack and youthful gait always looks like a university student throughout the film. Moreover, she is helping her husband write a book on the memorization of the Quran and the first item they smuggle out of the prison are his handwritten notes, which she goes over meticulously and types into a computer. Again, the myth of the Muslim family as a factory to churn out children, propagated not only in Israel but also in Europe, is given the lie here. Hind and her husband are closely united in love, work, and dreams for the future.

We learn that Hind and her husband already have two daughters and the rather frantic and thriller like check point passage the film opens with is Hind trying to get to her daughter’s graduation. Hind is a mother who has had to raise her daughters on her own, she says proudly that she has made sure they had a university education and she was also able to help them get married and settle. And among the many prayers she utters on film the one about conceiving is that "so that she may not be pass the rest of her days alone."

The camera is very good at capturing Hind’s loneliness, as she does chores around her house that is clearly been cleaned and decorated with love, one of those houses we have seen wrecked by Israeli soldiers. There is a teddy bear in one of the rooms and I find myself also uttering a prayer "dear God please don’t let the IDF touch that teddy bear" because we all know, almost against our will, how fond Israeli soldiers are of decorating tanks with Palestinian toys.

Apart from the loneliness of course it is to resist the occupation that Hind wants to have another child while she can. The IVF clinic explains that the procedure is paid for by the Palestinian Authority for mothers if they already have only boys or only girls. Hind recounts how an Israeli soldier mocked her for having only girls and so trying again becomes even more important for her. The film is very good at nuance here: we don’t see Hind praying for a boy apart from this story with the Israeli soldier, and we see a ‘gender reveal’ party where the guests abstain from guessing either way – all wishing for a healthy baby. From certain aspects a gender reveal party may seem cheesy but, in the film, it reinforces the idea of how each Palestinian baby is planned for and awaited, to be the apple of the whole family’s eye.

One of the most stunning scenes of the film is Hind walking determinedly down the hill with the view of Jerusalem on her right. On a higher overhang are a group of Jewish men praying and the scene has the aura of Mary walking into the Temple.

The meaning of the title, the effort to create life but also to hang on to an idea for life, comes into full force by the end of the film. Through Hind’s faith and dignity Palestinians emerge here as a people bound by love, family and hope. By centering one woman’s struggle to conceive, the film exposes the cruelty of occupation while affirming the profound intentionality and value of Palestinian life.

The film has already drawn audiences at the Visions de Reel festival in Switzerland and will continue its journey to Krakow and New Zealand Doc Edge in the coming months.