Asher de Bentolila Tlalim – 2003 docu 97 min.
Galoot (‘exile’ in Hebrew) is an intimate saga that touches the seeds of the pains and tragedies transformed nowadays into the locked Palestinian/Israeli conflict. A temporary exile from his homeland allows the Israeli filmmaker to see the conflict with new and provocative eyes. Through his Palestinian and Israeli friends and through his and his wife’s personal journeys ‘Galoot” provides a reflective journey through homes and deserted homelands in Israel, Palestine, Poland, Morocco and England. Disillusioned by politicians, Tlalim tries to discover a scientific solution to the conflict with the help of Dr. Tim Hunt, Nobelprize winner 2001.
Director: Ran Tal Docu Israel 2012 73 minutes ArabicHebr
To Jews it’s the Gan HaShlosha National Park. To Arabs it’s the Sahne. In this widely-lauded documentary, however, it’s the eponymous Garden of Eden. A funny, generous document of the park—a popular getaway for Israelis from all walks of life—through the seasonal changes of one year, an introduction to some of the park’s regular visitors, a host of fascinating individuals. There is a recent divorcee, a woman who has faced untold trials since her marriage as an adolescent, a man planning to emigrate from Israel, and another traumatized by his brother’s death in war. Christians, Muslims, Jews, and atheists are here, united in their humanity, and the result is a testimony on the vibrant diversity of Israel, often mistakenly simplified into two monolithic poles. Themes: Documentary, Education www.youtube.com
Dror Moreh – 2012 docu 101 min.
Zes voormalige hoofden van de Israëlische Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst SHIN BETH reflecteren op eigen handelen en het toenmalige veligheidsbeleid van Israël over hun ‘war on terror.’ Ze stonden midden in het Israëlische besluitvormingsproces m.b.t. de veiligheid van 1980 tot 2011. Met unieke archiefbeelden. Het zijn achtereenvolgens Avraham Shalom, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon, Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter en Yuval Diskin. Avraham vergelijkt de bezetting van de Palestijnse gebieden met de Duitse bezetting. Conclusie door hen uitgesproken over hun eigen beleid: ‘je kunt de slag winnen, maar de oorlog verliezen.’ Docu met Nederlandse ondertiteling: dvd 21,92 dollar, publieke vertoning 120 dollar. www.youtube.com
A lof of people are suffering, and the film is to show some of the stories of how they are living there. I was filming the wall, it is a militant area. It was horrible. I was threatened by soldiers many times. Once when I was filming, a soldier was standing behind me, talking very loud to disturb me. It provoked me, I was on the palestinian side of the wall.
All of a sudden the soldiers pointed their guns at me. I had a panic attack, I couldn’t breathe. But I saved myself. I opened my arms and shouted ”This is Palestinian land!”. And they left. But I was on the edge of something very horrible.
Khalil Mozayyen Egypt / Palestine / Israel 2012 docu 47 min.
Synopsis: Gaza 36mm is the interpretation of a reality that excels the game of death more than the game of life. It is a small window through which Gaza had the chance to see the outside space, a special cinematographic code that reflects the state of destruction and damage of the cinemas due to ideological and social reasons. It is about a dump that was once a cinema house that attracts visitors.
About the filmmaker: Khalil Al Mozayen is a Palestinian filmmaker who studied photography in Jerusalem, cinema in Russia and trained at the FOJO Institute in Sweden. He has an extensive experience in media production and is a seasoned trainer in filmmaking. www.youtube.com
Abed el Salam Shehada – 2006 docu 50 min.
Gaza director Abed El Salam Shehada, follows the story of the Abu Maher family, separated for decades by Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. With the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza, he documented the withdrawal and its aftermath, revealing how Israel may have evacuated its settlements, but Gaza remains closed and sequestered from world beyond it. “The film is a state of joy: another kind of tears I’m not familiar with. I cried like a child and felt the glee of pride and consciousness. For the first time in my life, I unified with the free world and Gaza reassumed its geographical existence on the continent. But this happiness didn’t last long. Checkpoints were dismantled and settlements were destroyed. But Gaza disappeared once again behind an endless circular fence.” Abed El Salam Shehada.
Anne Paq and Roger Hill, docu 11 min, 2015 Gaza
Two young Palestinian siblings living with their extended family in the village of Seifa on the northern border area of Gaza confront the aftermath of the Gaza war of 2014 just weeks after Israeli artillery devastated their home. The film captures a snapshot of young lives and
families in turmoil, adapting to the harsh realities of yet another violent disruption to their hopes and aspirations in Gaza.
Joan Mandell – 1984 docu
The Gaza Strip’s half-million Palestinians live in the Israeli-occupied territory most neglected by the outside world. This film investigates Israeli policies toward this area and interviews Israeli officials, such as Ariel Sharon. Archival footage shows scenes from the military “pacification” program in Gaza and its effect on local residents. The reality of life for people in the Gaza strip is brought into focus by the film’s portrayal of the daily life of one family, the Dimrawis. They live in Jabalia, the largest of all the refugee camps.
Marco Pasquini – 2009 docu 84 min.
In the 1970s, Beirut’s Gaza Hospital was established as the main medical services centre run by the PLO in Lebanon. Today, the shell of the war scarred building is home to hundreds of Palestinian refugee families. Due to its location at the crossroads between Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, this ten floor structure has witnessed uncountable key episodes in Palestinian history. Drawing on archive film from the hospital’s past, and on interviews with hospital staff, Pasquini’s elegantly composed doc chronicles this history, from the Hospital’s celebrated foundation as a cornerstone of a revolutionary social welfare programme begun by the PLO, to its destruction and subsequent transformation into a vertical refugee camp. www.youtube.com
James Longley – 2002 docu 74 min.
‘I wanted to make a film that would convey not only the hard facts of life inside the Gaza Strip, but also the emotions, sensations and driving desires of the people I filmed. I made the film to fill a gap in our knowledge and a blind spot in our thinking about this conflict, but more than anything this film is an attempt to record the humanity of the people I met there, the thing that is impossible to tell in words.’
(Director – James Longley). “Beautiful, heartbreaking, raw and revealing” – Daily Star (Beirut). “In the best verite tradition, there are moments in Gaza Strip that disclose a wrenching human reality deeper and more basic than any politics” – New York Times. www.youtube.com
by Philip Gnadt en Mickey Yamine, docu 87 min, Duitsland, 2016
Language Arabic, English and Hawaiian with English and Arabic subtitles
Trailers: youtube.com
youtube.com
Trapped in “the world’s largest open-air prison” and ruled by war, a new generation is drawn to the beaches. Sick of occupation and political gridlock, they find their own personal freedom in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. They are the surfers of Gaza.
The documentary looks at a surprising new community, composed of a new generation of Middle Easterners who look to the waves of the Mediterranean for solace from war and political gridlock. In the clip, the 15-year-old girl notes how her hobbies — which include wearing nail polish and swimming (without a head scarf so she doesn’t choke) — stand in contrast to her society even though that’s what makes her happy.
“The film is not a report on Middle Eastern society; it’s a story. We chose a small group of people for their individual aspirations and attempted to show beauty and hope in a place known by most for quite the opposite,” director Philip Gnadt and co-director/producer Mickey Yamine tells. “If we manage to make a few people think — whether it be about the similarities and differences in cultures or how happiness is relative to what opportunities you are given — then this film has had a purpose.”
Miriam Abu Sharkh – 2013 docu 22 min.
After human rights professor Miriam Abu Sharkh is compelled to travel through the Gaza/Egypt tunnels to visit her family in Gaza, she grows increasingly interested in the lives of tunnel workers and their families. Gaza: Tunnels to Nowhere, enjoys rare access to all the risk and heartbreak of this most perilous of trade routes. www.youtube.com
by Anne Paq + Alaa’ Qandil, docu 14 min. Gaza 2016
What do you remember about the 51-day-long Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2014? Maybe the numbers: 2,200 dead, 11,000 injured, 100,000 homeless? The war, so closely watched by the media, has been measured, numbered, counted. But the statistics do not reflect the loss of a loved one, the bombing of a family home, or the trauma that comes after the ceasefire. Gaza: A Gaping Wound tells the stories of some of the families from the Gaza Strip whose lives were shattered during the Israeli military offensive in 2014. It stands as an intimate tale of sudden loss, pain, and the life in the aftermath. For the survivors, once the war ends, the struggle really begins. The film is part of a long-term project and web documentary Obliterated Families.
by May Odeh e Riham Ghazali; Palestine, 2017, 20 min, Arabic
A tribute to all the women in Gaza:the women who are trying to leave a unique imprint of change, love, and success, despite all the difficulties. It is an extraordinary experience that allows us to meet 4 women the singer, the fashion designer,the activist, and the mother, whom share their hope for a better future. www.youtube.com
After the last Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, once stop the bombing, the reality of the conflict disappears from the media. The documentary is a trip to Gaza in which, through various characters, we know the violation of human rights that exists daily in the occupied West Bank and the situation of blockade and war in which is trying to survive the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. It is a trip through their cities, their people and also, somehow, their history under the occupation of Israel.
Various directors – 2009 docu 38 min.
Gaza’s Winter is a collection of 12 short films made by filmmakers from around the world. Winter 2008: the bombardment of Gaza leaves some 1,417 Palestinians dead, over 10,000 homes destroyed and thousands severely and permanently injured. As these agonies unfolded, a group of filmmakers based in Ramallah met in an attempt to direct their outrage into a creative collective effort. Filmmakers within and beyond Palestine were invited to submit short works. The result was Gaza’s Winter, a diverse and often striking collection of global meditations on the war waged on Gaza that winter. The collection comprises work by the following directors: Islam al Burbar (Gaza), Tareq Elayyan (Gaza), Dima Hamdan (UK), Fahad Jabali (Iceland), Pilar Tavora (Spain), Salim Abu Jabal (Golan Heights), George Azar (Palestine/Jordan), Ismail Habbash (Ramallah), Mathieu Cauville (France), Khmais Hmaid (Tunis), Raed al Helou (Ramallah), and Omar Hamilton (UK). To arrange a screening of Gaza’s Winter, please contact producer Najwa Najjar: pomegranates.myrrh@yahoo.com
Richard Dino – 2000 docu 98 min.
Genet in Chatila is a documentary meditation on Jean Genet’s experiences of the Palestinian revolution in Lebanon and Jordan in the early and mid1970s, and again in 1982, when the aging author returned to Beirut and there witnessed the immediate aftermath of the Sabra and Chatila massacre just outside Beirut: “A photograph can’t capture the flies,” he wrote, “nor the thick white smell of death, nor can it show how you have to jump when you go from one body to another.” This was an encounter which compelled Genet to start writing after 20 years of reticence. The pages Genet worked on in Beirut were to grow into Prisoner of Love, his last book, from which Dino’s work takes its cue. Genet’s recollections of his 2 years living with Palestinian resistance fighters in Jordan in the 1970s (“The feda’iyeen didn’t want power, they had freedom”) narrate a contemporary journey to seek out the living among Genet’s old comrades…. Reflecting on the fate of his companions in 1982, Genet insists, “It must be stated… that hundreds of years are not enough for the final destruction of a people”. This is a poetic political film which articulates Genet’s aesthetics of resistance and revolution while asking what remains of a revolution unfinished. www.youtube.com
An invitation to embark on a magical journey into the filmmaker’s amusing life, this humorous film is a mixture of reality and imagination. Mamdouh Afdile is a recent film school graduate waiting for his big break. His brother has other plans. And his parents believe in ghost and demons.
Genies and Madness is a wild, comical ride inside one family’s lunacy. The filmmaker tries to come to terms with his family’s demons and to confront his own.
www.youtube.com
Yousef Al Deek, docudrama 90 min, release volgens plan augustus 2015, maar geen info over première gevonden!!
About the great escape of 65 Palestinian prisoners from Shatta Israeli Jail 1958. Uit www.facebook.com info:
“The main idea of the film came when I heard the story of the great escape of 64 Palestinian and Arab prisoners from the Israeli prison of ‘Shatta” in 1958. My research of the story led me to several interesting facts in two story lines: first : The amount of suffering of the prisoners, and the hidden details about the munity that took place that day, how they got organized and planned controlling the prison and planned their escape. Such details remained for long unknown, even to the Israeli Investigation Committee that issued its report in more than 1119 pages following the escape. in more than 26 pages, the report demonstrates that the prisoners never said or knew how the plan was executed, and that the planners successfully escaped with all the details with them. only some maps were left behind.
the second layer is about the mysterious character among the prisoners, Ahamad ali Othman, who never said what his role was. Othman was an Egyptian journalist, who came to Israel holding a French passport and posing as a merchant . He was captured by the Israeli security under the pretext that he was a spy. Othman was considered to be a “Gentleman prisoner” by the Palestinians and “the spy” by the Israeli Authorities.
Throughout styled scenes we see how the prisoners were treated, and how they suffered and were humiliated daily; for example, they were not allowed to take off their shoes all day, or sleep and have some rest on their blankets. They were only allowed short breaks to walk, and the rooms were very crowded. Following such harsh living conditions, a group of prisoners, consisting mainly of Othman, Ibrahim serdana, abu hoqu , nemer doghmosh and Ahmad khalil with the help of a very young prisoner, Ali, who was allowed to move more freely within the prison , started to plan the escape. Ali, supported them with information about the area and helped them draw up a map. Using their lighters, they were able to make a fire bomb.
On August 1st, 1958 the prisoners know that there was a plan by the prison authority to move some of them to other prison. This piece of information led them to take the decision to execute their plan a day earlier than their original date. That day, Sobhi, the prisoner who was tasked of collecting and throwing away the garbage out in the yard, left the main door open without the guards realizing it. At supper time, Othman threw the bomb towards the guards, while Ahmad khalil was able to confiscate the weapons from them. Othman captured one of the guards called Gelik, and locked him up in one of the prison bathrooms. The other prisoners go straight to the weaponry room, broke the door and were able to take control of several guns and weapons. Fire exchange took place, leading to the killing of 13 prisoners as well as 2 prison guards. During two hours, 64 prisoner escape before the Israeli forces that were called in and surrounded the prison. Othman injured and not able to escape. Mahmod Batat come back to help him, but he was ambushed inside the prison and was shot dead by an Israeli soldier.
Othman remained in prison and was later released in 1964, he went back to Egypt where he stayed until 1988, then moved to Hungary . In 1996 he came back to Israel following an invitation sent to him from an Israeli journalist . During that visit, he visited the Guard Gelik.
After that, no one knew where he is, but we are trying to locate him in order to know straight from him what the plan was and how it was execute.
Style: this film is based on the first hand testimonies of the people who heard or participated in the escape from the Shatta prison. their voices will be sound over styled scenes of the munity , documents of the Investigation Committee, and newspapers. Two short videos will be used as well. Visual effects will be used mainly during the fire exchange scenes, as well as the search for the escaped prisoners that was conducted by the Israeli forces near faquaa village in the Jenin Area. We will build a replicate of the Shatta jail as we are not allowed to shoot there. Original music will be composed specifically for the film. www.youtube.com
Amber Fares, Avi Goldstein – 2009 docu
Moments Film Project 2009: Director: Amber Fares and Avi Goldstein | Producer: Yariv Mozer, Yael Perlov. Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2005 | Story Teller’s Country: Israel. Tags: Culture, Human Rights, Identity, Israel, Middle East. Synopsis: The Shu’afat refugee camp lies on the edge of Jerusalem. Holding blue Jerusalem IDs, but now separated from the city by the wall and a checkpoint, residents of the camp find themselves caught between Jerusalem and the West Bank. Deprived of civil services, the camp has become an overcrowded, no-man’s land plagued by garbage, drugs, and violence. Out of the daily struggle for survival and identity emerges G-Town, a young rap group bringing voice to life in the camp and defining Jerusalem’s Palestinian hip-hop.
Trailer: www.youtube.com
by Raed Andoni, docu 90 min. France/Switserland 2017. V
Haunted by his own time behind bars, Palestinian director Raed Andoni recreates a notorious Israeli interrogation centre — and has ex-prisoners re-enact experiences in a bid to set their demons free. In the running for best documentary at the Berlin film festival, Andoni’s “Istiyad Ashbah” (Ghost Hunting) examines the rarely documented collective trauma suffered by former Palestinian prisoners. “In Palestinian society, to survive detention and interrogation is like a rite of passage, you either come out a hero or you come out totally broken,” the celebrated Ramallah-based filmmaker told AFP this week after the film’s Berlinale premiere.
“And then people compare notes: how many days without sleep? How long in solitary?” the 45-year-old said.
Having been imprisoned himself in his youth, he said he remained “haunted by flashbacks” such as the sound of doors slamming shut and the feeling of a fabric bag being pulled over his head. Shot over seven weeks in a hangar in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the film brings together around a dozen former detainees of all ages and backgrounds, who are asked to recreate the notorious Russian Compound jail in west Jerusalem from memory.
The participants rebuild the detention centre in painstaking detail, from the size of their cells to the colour of the tiles and even the pulley they say was used to lift inmates off the ground during what they described as torture sessions.
Slowly they bring the place of their nightmares back to life — and as the walls go up, the memories come bubbling back to the surface, forcing the men to confront their memories and breaking taboos in the process.
“I use everything I can in the film to help them dig into their subconscience,” Andoni said, explaining that he wanted to peel away layer after layer of repression to find “the ghost inside”.
For some of the ex-detainees it was too much and they walked away from the project.
“I told everyone from the first day of shooting that you have the right to quit,” he said, adding that there were psychologists on set to provide emotional support.
His quest to push the men to their limits makes for uncomfortable viewing at times, particularly in the drawn-out torture scenes when the former inmates play the roles of Israeli interrogators or prison wardens.
Having already explored the topic of trauma in his first feature-length film “Fix Me”, which delves into his own psychoanalysis sessions, Andoni said this time he wanted to face the painful memories of his detention through the eyes of others. The experience has been cathartic, he said. “When I think about it now I (think) back more to the movie, and that was the idea,” he said.
His young assistant director Wadee Hanani, who was held at the Russian Compound detention centre for 45 days in 2009, said the film had helped him find some closure as well.
“I haven’t yet digested everything that happened, I am on the way, I am more connected. But I need time.”
Israeli NGOs have accused Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency of abusing Palestinians under interrogation in a manner so systematic it points to official endorsement.
The country has also come under fire at the United Nations over allegations of prisoner abuse — charges it rejects. www.youtube.com Clip: www.indiewire.com
Trailer: www.youtube.com
Yacine (Saleh Bakri) is a veterinarian in Palestine’s only remaining zoo in Qalqilia in the occupied West Bank. His young son Ziad (Ahmad Bayatra) has a strong bond with the zoo’s two giraffes. One night, after an air raid, tragedy strikes. Yacine has to promise Ziad a miracle that he’s not sure he can deliver.
An inspirational drama loosely based on a true story.
Taghreed el-Azza – 2010 Fiction 7 min.
Shown at the 2012 London Palestine Film Festival as part of “The Spring of Young Palestinian Women Filmmakers”, a programme guest curated by Shashat, the Palestinian film NGO: Girls and the Sea follows three young Palestinian girls planning to go to the beach after one of them wins a prize, a stay at a hotel by the sea. They prepare for the trip with much enthusiasm. But they still have to navigate a number of obstacles before they can reach their goal… The film was produced as part of a Shashat training programme for women filmmakers which invited young Palestinians from seven different cities to create works around the theme of “summer”.
Jeffrey Saunders, Maya Sanbar – 2006 docu 84 min.
Goal Dreams is a documentary about personal and national identity as seen through a football team like no other. Comprised of multiple nationalities, speaking different languages and having no home field, the Palestinian National Football team and its players must overcome obstacles of physical, emotional, cultural and geographic nature just to exist. The film chronicles the lives of four Palestinian players hailing from different parts of the world during the team’s preparation for their most important World Cup 2006 qualification match. Their journeys are varied, and they carry with them the contradictions that lay within modern day identity. Together, through the universal language of football, the players of Palestinian origin from the four corners of the world are learning to forge a common identity. Will they qualify? www.youtube.com
Michal Pfeffer, Uri Kranot – 2005 fiction 7 min.
Inspired by Picasso’s disturbing masterpiece Guernica, this debut by Israeli animators Pfeffer and Kranot is undoubtedly a stylistic masterpiece. Although at times the film seems to want to balance the violence of the two parties in the current conflict, its unflinching depiction of the horror of the occupation and its devastating culmination makes it worthy of close attention. www.youtube.com
Nahed Awad – 2003 fiction 52 min.
Inspired by Ramallah artist Vera Tamari’s installation of cars crushed by the Israeli Defense Force during incursions into Ramallah, Awad’s film blends the absurd, the comical and the violent by incorporating photographs of the cars before they were destroyed, lovingly framed in images of wedding parties and families driving to daily appointments.
Director: Ada Ushpiz and Shosh Shlam Docu Israel 2012 55 minutes Arab
For those living in the Israeli settlements around the southern West Bank, the Hebron Hills garbage dump is just a place where trash goes and is forgotten. For the hundreds of resourceful Palestinians in the nearby city of Yatta, however, that trash is a treasure, a way to feed their families, a way of life. Directors Shlam and Ushpiz fix their camera on these scavengers who live off of prosperity’s cast-offs, men and boys who brave deplorable conditions and Israeli soldiers to rummage through the trash for material that has a second life—scrap metal, old clothes—and which might bring their families incrementally closer to a better life. A portrait of shared striving which narrows to unforgettable individual stories, using an oblique approach to highlight the vast disparities of wealth in modern Israel. “A truly blood-chilling… excellent film.” —Haaretz
Themes: Documentary, Human Rights
Synopsis
The Hebron hills garbage dump serves the Israeli settlements around and is a source of livelihood for Palestinian families from the village of Yatta. The stories of the men in the dump expose a daily struggle for subsistence in an inescapable reality of occupation. Their daily effort for every scrap of metal in the dump distracts from other pains. For the average person in Yatta, who has lost all faith in politics, success and education have become a personal weapon against the occupation, one that might extricate them from the suffocating trap of the garbage dump, both literally and figuratively. www.youtube.com
Suha Arraf – 2004 docu 52 min.
Sha’ban Nassar, a young Jerusalemite, juggles daily problems of economic subsistence, family pressures and his aspirations to become a singer. Through Nassar’s personal story, we get a glimpse of his city’s struggle for survival in the face of attempts to erase its Arab identity. Following the death of his father and his mother’s decision to leave the family for a younger man, Nassar becomes the sole provider for his 12 younger siblings. Balancing these duties with his passion for playing music, his job as a taxi driver, and his status as an “internal” refugee in the city, makes his life precarious. On the personal level, Nassar appears as a Shakespearian hero, while on the public level, through his dealings with his surroundings and authorities, Sha’ban is a fighter. Here in occupied Jerusalem, the private and the political are constantly intersecting. Sha’aban’s story is inspiring, and Arraf’s patient filmmaking does justice to this very ordinary hero.
Director: Dima Abu Ghoush Documentary, 26 min., 2004
“Qalqilia is a land besieged. It used to be beautiful. There were trees and beautiful things. It was more like a village with its trees and orange groves, but when the Israelis built the “WALL” it changed, it’s not the Qalqilia we know… people lost their land to the Israelis… we want Palestine as it used to be.”
te zien in 4 delen op Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvY9KJCLqas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_chf7uzc7f4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc8Tazd7f1c
Shot in Norway and Palestine, The Goodness Regime creatively explores the foundations of the ideology and self-image of modern Norway—from the Crusades to the diplomatic theatre of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. Archival footage of political speeches and clips from Hollywood films are woven together with a series of enactments by children, in which they recount the myths, historical events, and cultural personae that have propelled this understanding of the Scandinavian nation. In a satirical deconstruction of the “goodness regime,” the artists explore the past moral dilemmas of one of the wealthiest countries on earth.
The film looks at the Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the PLO: through secret, back-channel diplomacy, Norway facilitated a series of meetings that led to the two sides signing a Declaration of Principles. The Oslo Accords became the first major example of the Norwegian model for conflict resolution, and the country successfully managed to brand itself as a peacemaker. However, the Accords were in a fact a political failure, and an obstacle in the struggle for Palestinian statehood. This case study reflects the resilience of the Norwegian self-image and highlights the pitfalls of a national dream of goodness.
The film, which was supported by Arts Council Norway, Sharjah Art Foundation, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Norsk Fotografisk Fond, and Office of Contemporary Art Norway, premiered at Kunsthall Oslo exactly 20 years after the conclusion and signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
The Goodness Regime
Jumana Manna en Sille Storihle, docu 21 min. 2014, Noorwegen/Palestina, Noors en Engels gesproken, Engelse ondertitels
The Goodness Regime is a creative documentary exploring the myths and images that have enabled an understanding of Norway as a nation of peace and benevolence. “So this goodness regime uses the world as a narcissistic mirror for Norway. This mirror also points to the position of Palestine as the ‘ace card’ of global politics, which most countries want a hand in because it services their positioning in the world” Jumana Manna
by Isabel Bilde, docu 12 min. 2017 Producer: Haneen Khaled and support Filmlab
What is the best way to meet strangers? And what do the surroundings mean in relation to expression? A group gets together in an apartment in Ramallah to create a theatre group.
Docu 60 min. and available free to watch on YouTube, is the culmination of a joint project by filmmaker Benny Brunner and Arjan El Fassed, who is a co-founder of The Electronic Intifada.
On May 15, Palestinians mark the anniversary of the Nakba, the systematic expulsion of the Palestinian people by Zionist militias that began in late 1947 and lasted through 1948 and beyond. As well as land and properties, a lesser known aspect of that expulsion is that Israel looted Palestinian homes over their cultural treasures, among them books, manuscripts, personal papers, photographs and works of art.
The The Great Book Robbery tells the story of the systematic looting in 1948 of tens of thousands of Palestinian books in a joint operation by the Haganah – what became the Israeli army – and the Israeli national library.
Using eyewitness interviews, secretly shot footage, and historic images, and shots of the books themselves, The Great Book Robbery tells the story of the books and their owners, despite ongoing Israeli official denial.
Israel’s national library denied the filmmakers permission to shoot the collection of looted Palestinian books it holds, but the filmmakers did so any way with a palm-sized camera.
We see books that were taken from the homes of well-known figures, such as Palestinian diarist, educator and visionary Khalil Sakakini among others, often with hand-written notes, or dedications by or to their owners. The Israeli library catalogued the books under the code “AP” which stood for “Abandoned Property.”
“Trailer: vimeo.com
The Great Book Robbery klinkt als een spannende actiefilm, waarvoor je met popcorn op de bank gaat hangen. De werkelijkheid kan daar niet verder vanaf staan. Het onderwerp van deze mooi gemaakte film is hoe na de Onafhankelijkheidsoorlog van 1948 meer dan 70.000 boeken uit leegstaande Palestijnse huizen zijn meegenomen en opgeslagen in Israëlische bibliotheken. De inwoners waren eerder verjaagd of vertrokken.
Er ontstond zelfs een intellectuele hotline tussen plunderende soldaten en boeken-hongerige bibliotheken waar belangwekkende collecties vol poëzie-, geschiedenis- en religieuze boeken enthousiast werden binnengehaald. Maar vervolgens niets meer mee is gedaan. Palestijnse inwoners van Israël komen aan het woord over over hoe zij dit fenomeen hebben ervaren.
Liana Badr 2002 docu 37 min.
Badr’s latest documentary film, “The Green Bird,” is about the daily life of children under the destruction and the siege imposed on the Palestinians by the Israeli army. It depicts the lives of ordinary children who talk about their dreams, their games and their internal resistance against the harsh life which is imposed on them by the occupiers. Badr notes that these children remain courageous even though they are trapped and scared.
Director: Levi Zini Docu Israel 2013 50 minutes HebrewArab
Telling the stories of two teenage soccer players, Yisrael Agos and Mahdi Zouabi, Green Dreams shows the profound personal and financial sacrifices that are required to have even a shot at an athletic career. Yisrael dreams of playing midfield for Champions League powerhouse AC Milan, while Mahdi aspires to be a goalie for the Israeli national team. Yisrael, who lives in a boarding school, is of Ethiopian descent, but has practically been adopted by an Israeli man who always wanted a soccer player for a son, and who now neglects his own sons for Yisrael. Mahdi lives with his own father, who has a single-minded obsession with making his son into a pro and whose idea of encouragement is yelling things like “I don’t like to be humiliated” from the sidelines. With its full-exposure look into relationships beyond the locker room, Levi Zini and Gil Edni’s film is nothing less than an Israeli Hoop Dreams. Themes: Documentary www.youtube.com
(De Groene Lijn)
Radi Suudi, tv-documentary 50 min. npo 2013
“This is a 50 min documentary that I made and produced for Dutch television. It was shot in Arab east-Jerusalem. The program was aired in late August 2013 on Dutch tv. Voice overs are in Dutch but interviews and dialogues are mostly in English, with some Arabic and Dutch.”
Diala Kachmar Documentary / Lebanon, UAE / 2013 / 110 mins
It has no borders but through them. They are at once the street’s security cordon and it’s ticking time bomb; their bodies are an extension of its tattooed walls. They are a group of marginalized young men known as the “thugs of Al Lija”. They define the features of that chaotic neighborhood in Beirut, and reveal a mysterious world which carries within its folds the particular complexities of social and political realities in Lebanon. www.youtube.com
Borhane Alaouie, Nouri Bouzid, Mustapha Derkaoui, Nejia Ben Mabrouk, Elia Suleiman 1991 fiction 109 min.
The Gulf War… What Next? is the result of an invitation extended to five Arab directors, including Palestinian newcomer Elia Suleiman, to create a short on the first Gulf War. Black Night Eclipse sees Borhane Alaouie (Lebanon) searching for a cinematic response from selfimposed exile in Paris in Nouri Bouzid’s (Tunisia) It is Sherherazade They’re Killing, a Ramadan family gathering is marred by dissent over the war The Silence by Mustapha Derkaoui (Morocco) finds a theatre troupe’s preparations troubled by preoccupation with the agonies of Iraq in Research of Shaima, Nejia Ben Mabrouk (Tunisia) visits Baghdad seeking a young child whose face she has seen only on television and in Homage by Assassination, Elia Suleiman introduces us to the enigmatic “E.S.” for the first time as the director grapples in New York with an unfinished script against the back of war.
