Abdallah Al-Khatib

Abdallah Al-Khatib (Arabic: عبد الله الخطيب) is a Palestinian-Syrian filmmaker, screenwriter and human-rights activist. He is best known for his films Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege and Chronicles from the Siege, both inspired by his experiences in the Yarmouk refugee camp of Damascus. His work has explored war, displacement, and the lived experiences of civilians in conflict zones. In 2026, Chronicles from the Siege won the Best First Feature Award at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival. Al-Khatib was born in 1989 in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp and suburb of Damascus, Syria. He studied sociology at the University of Damascus. Before the escalation of the Syrian revolution, he worked with the United Nations on youth and volunteer initiatives and helped establish the humanitarian organisation Wataad, which coordinated relief activities during the conflict. During 2011 and 2015, Al-Khatib began documenting everyday life in the besieged camp, filming events that would later form the basis of his first feature documentary. Alongside filmmaking, Al-Khatib has been involved in humanitarian and human-rights initiatives related to the Syrian conflict and Palestinian refugees. For his activism, he received the Swedish Per Anger Prize for Human Rights in 2016 and recognition from Greenpeace Germany. After leaving Syria, Al-Khatib settled in Germany, where he has continued his work as a filmmaker and public speaker on issues of displacement, war, and human rights. During his speech at the award ceremony, the filmmaker criticized the German and Israeli governments and their involvements in the Gaza War. This prompted Germany's Federal Minister for the Environment Carsten Schneider (SPD) to leave the ceremony. Similar speeches and public statements by filmmakers criticizing the festival's reluctance to allow political statements were reported in international media.