At a festival like Locarno, which prides itself on being the only European film festival for the real cinephiles—destinations like Cannes or Venice are far too commercially-minded, even if there are a handful of repeat titles—filmgoing can be a lot like gambling.

Deep Sleep realizes the latent political potential of traditional practices of “flicker film” while deepening the diversity of images of Palestine in the very indeterminacy of the images presented.