Throughout history, cinema has depicted this war suffered by the people of Israel and Palestine. Five films make up this list, which serves as a good starting point for a closer look at the historical and bloody conflict.
Israel suffered an unprecedented attack by militants from the terrorist organization Hamas, declaring a state of war and bombing the Gaza Strip on the same Saturday, marking the worst escalation in decades of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The conflicted relationship between Israel and Palestine has been portrayed in cinema throughout history and here we present these five suggestions.
“Munich,” directed by Steven Spielberg; “5 broken cameras”; “Lemon Tree,” directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis; “Paradise Now,” based on Said and Khaled, two Palestinians who are recruited to get to Israel and blow themselves up, and “Visit Palestine,” Katie Barlow’s heartbreaking documentary.
“Munich”, Steven Spielberg. Trailer.
“MUNICH”
Munich was a divisive place. The film was criticized as an attack on Palestinians and its director, Steven Spielberg, was reprimanded for not being a “friend of Israel.”
By successfully insulting both sides, Spielberg could have achieved something that is completely rare in Hollywood: making a film with a clear conscience.
A chronicle of the Black September attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and Israel’s ruthless retaliation, “Munich” is a film that achieves two things.
1) It gives us a sense of Israeli anger, the lasting scars of the Holocaust and the lengths they are willing to go to ensure that something like this never happens again.
2) It also shows us, with the necessary rigor, that both sides are fighting for the same thing: a place to call “home.”
If there is one message from this film, it is that violence only begets more violence and that competing forms of terror are no way to create peace.
5 Broken Cameras Official Trailer #1 (2012) – Documentary HD
“5 broken cameras”
Emad Burnat got his first camera when his fourth child, Gibreel, was born in 2005.
He began by recording home videos, first for himself and then for his neighbors, before becoming something of an amateur documentarian, spending days and nights recording life around him in the West Bank community where his family lived has lived for generations.
When Israel sent troops to strip him and his residents of their land in order to build a defensive wall, Emad Burnat realized that his cameras could be tools for self-determination.
They could be used as a way to unite and mobilize your community.
Named for the cameras that were destroyed in the five years this documentary was filmed, “5 Broken Cameras” is one of the best documentaries you will see about real Palestinian life.
This documentary offers the most direct experience of what it’s like to live a life of persecution, dispossessed from the place you call home, and having to contend with the unwavering justice of your oppressors.
This is a film with a sense of history. It may be controversial, but activism always is and must be.
Los Limoneros (Lemon Tree) – Spanish trailer
lemon Tree
If this were a Hollywood film, it would have a happy ending.
Salma is a strong Palestinian woman who has the misfortune of living in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Israel’s newly appointed defense minister has just moved into a stylish new home that borders her property on the Green Line that separates Israel from the occupied West Bank.
At night, a watchtower is erected and military forces begin patrolling the area.
They inform him that the lemon tree, a tree that has been in his family for 50 years and is their only source of income, poses a security threat as terrorists hide among the trees and therefore needs to be uprooted.
Of course for military security reasons.
Directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis (“The Syrian Bride”), “Lemon Tree” is a modern take on the Old Testament story about the king of Israel who covets his neighbor’s vineyard.
The Israelis here are arrogant and uncompromising. Palestinians are proud and stubborn.
This is the greatest battle in microcosm. And the film, which doesn’t take sides, does well to tell a very human story that shockingly illustrates all the forces that divide Israelis and Palestinians: language, power, religion and a massive wall.
This is a beautiful border parable.
Paradise now
Said and Khaled, two Palestinians, mechanics and best friends, are recruited to get to Israel and blow themselves up. They are not religious under any circumstances. They’re not very political either. And yet they accept the call willingly, even with euphoria. These are normal guys, not monsters or fanatics.
It’s rare to see a film from the suicide bomber’s point of view (two others come to mind: “The War Within” and “The Terrorist”), and “Paradise Now” is a powerful and authentic film that succeeds issue deals with this. the topic in a differentiated and poetic way.
The answer to the question of whether suicide bombings are justified or not should always be no, but this film provides explanation and context.
Paradise Now is an important, if unpleasant, watch.
Especially because we are so used to making moral judgments without fully understanding the complexity of a given situation.
This is a film that forces us to confront these judgments by challenging our preconceptions and forcing us to confront an uncomfortable reality.
Visit Palestine – Trailer
Visit Palestine
Visit Palestine, Katie Barlow’s harrowing documentary, follows Irish human rights activist Caoimhe Butterly during her stay in Jenin refugee camp as she risks her own safety to integrate with the Palestinian people shortly after the 2002 massacre.
Why is this documentary so unique? Barlow and Butterly are so trusted and respected that they have access to so many intimate conversations. We witness the community’s most private thoughts, we witness their growing isolation, we witness their fear. For a brief moment, this documentary gives voice to a struggle that has become increasingly silent over the years.
Despite its release in 2006, this documentary has a depressing immediacy. This is a city that lives in a constant state of uncertainty, chaos and terror. And Visit Palestine is a film that conveys more than just the sociopolitical context of their plight, but also their pain, anger and trauma.