Breaking Bread in the shadow of hostage exchange

The language of food as a symbol of hope

The developments in Gaza this week, with hostages exchanged and loved ones laid to rest, stir up emotions across the region and beyond. It marks a deeply emotional milestone in negotiations, one that again exposes how fractured lives, families, and politics remain across the Israeli–Palestinian divide.

In times like these, how do we hold space for grief, memory, hope, and human connection? And how can those of us watching from the other side of the world possibly process the meaning of it all?

At moments when headlines feel unbearable, film can offer a window: one that helps us to foster understanding, rediscover empathy, and feel the quiet possibility of change.

This week, we’re turning to Arab and Israeli voices, and to films that use the language of food, humble, nourishing, and universal, as a symbol of hope.

Breaking Bread (2020)

Directed by Beth Elise Hawk, Breaking Bread is not a film about war or politics, but about food, how people share recipes, kitchen time, memories, and identity. Yet, through its gentle rhythm and shared meals, it becomes a powerful counterpoint to the divisions that fuel conflict.

The film follows Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, founder of the A-Sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa and the first Muslim Arab to win Israel’s MasterChef. A Palestinian citizen of Israel, Nof brings Arab and Jewish chefs together to collaborate on dishes that speak to their shared heritage — from qatayef (a Ramadan dessert) to kishek (Syrian yoghurt soup), maqluba, and hummus.

Through these kitchens and conversations, Breaking Bread reveals the continuity of Palestinian and broader Arabic culinary traditions, even within a society marked by division.

Its message is profoundly human: that coexistence begins not in parliament or on paper, but over stoves and tables, in listening, tasting, and remembering.

While the film avoids overt political commentary, its setting in Haifa, a historically mixed Arab–Jewish city, makes its quiet message unmistakable. It celebrates people, not positions; flavours, not factions.

Breaking Bread highlights:

• The endurance of Palestinian food traditions and identity

• The voices of Arab citizens within Israeli society

• The transformative power of culinary diplomacy, using food to bridge divides

It’s a hopeful, humanistic portrait of chefs who find common ground not by erasing their differences, but by honouring them, together.

Make Hummus Not War (2012)

In a similar spirit, Trevor Graham’s documentary Make Hummus Not War stirs up a deliciously pointed question: can the region’s shared love of hummus be a recipe for peace?

Tracing the ancient dish’s roots and the modern rivalries over who “owns” it, Graham embarks on a lively journey through Beirut, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and New York, meeting chefs, historians, activists, and chickpea farmers. Along the way, he sits down with culinary icon Claudia Roden, biblical scholars, Jewish settlers, and Arab cooks who see in hummus not just sustenance, but cultural identity, memory, and even spiritual connection.

It’s a film that reminds us that even amid conflict, the stories we tell through food endure, connecting us across religion, politics, and geography.

Why these films matter now

As the world watches the fragile progress of hostage exchanges and ceasefire talks, these films invite us to see another side of the story, one of ordinary people breaking bread rather than breaking apart.

Food cannot end wars. But it can keep open the possibility of empathy, reminding us that behind every political headline is someone’s kitchen, someone’s recipe, someone’s act of care.

For those of us far from Gaza and Tel Aviv, Haifa or Ramallah, films like Breaking Bread and Make Hummus Not War offer a way to process this moment with compassion, through the shared, human language of food.

Watch these films and more on Beamafilm - stories that nourish the soul and remind us of our shared humanity.