Marcellus is a tribune in the time of Christ. He is in charge of the group that is assigned to crucify Jesus. Drunk, he wins Jesus' homespun robe after the crucifixion. He is tormented by nightmares and delusions after the event. Hoping to find a way to live with what he has done, and still not believing in Jesus, he returns to Palestine to try and learn what he can of the man he killed.
Palestiinan Oscar-ehdokkaaksi hyväksytty draama kertoo kahdesta lapsuudenystävästä, jotka rekrytoidaan itsemurhaiskuun Tel Aviviin. Khaled ja Said naamioituvat israelilaisiksi ja lastaavat itsensä räjähteillä. Tarkastusasemalla kaverukset joutuvat kuitenkin erilleen toisistaan. Samalla toinen alkaa epäillä terrori-iskun oikeutusta. Elokuva ei ihannoi tai tuomitse henkilöitään, mutta tunnelma kehittyy pikkuhiljaa arkisesta pakahduttavaksi.
Israelilaisen Ari Folmanin kirjoittama ja ohjaama Waltz with Bashir on äärimäisen henkilökohtainen teos. Dokumenttielokuvassa palataan vuoteen 1982, Israelin ja Libanonin välisen sodan aikoihin sekä erityisesti Sabran ja Shatilan palestiinalaiskylien verilöylyyn. Sodassa mukana ollut Folman huomasi vuosien jälkeen ettei muista tapahtumista enää mitään. Hän aloitti kokemustensa rekonstruoinnin ja ryhtyi puhumaan sodasta paitsi psykoterapeuttinsa myös silloisten ystäviensä ja armeijatovereidensa kanssa. Lopputuloksena on vaikuttava teos muistamisesta, unista ja sodan traumoista. Maailmalla monasti palkitussa elokuvassa on poikkeuksellinen muoto: Folman teki aiheesta animaatiodokumentin. Näin hän pääsi paremmin kiinni aiheeseen: mukana on paitsi vuoden 1982 sotatapahtumia myös epäluotettavia muistikuvia, houreita ja painajaisia.
Salma Zidane, a widow, lives simply from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank's occupied territory. The Israeli defence minister and his wife move next door, forcing the Secret Service to order the trees' removal for security. The stoic Salma seeks assistance from the Palestinian Authority, Israeli army, and a young attorney, Ziad Daud, who takes the case. In this allegory, does David stand a chance against Goliath?
Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.
Palestine, 1917. The British advance has been stopped by the Turkish line running from Gaza to Beersheba. The latest attack on Gaza has failed. The attacking forces included a regiment of Australian mounted infantry, the Light Horse... Lighthorseman Frank is wounded in a skirmish with Bedouin. He is replaced by a young soldier, Dave, who proves to be a crack shot, but reluctant to fire at the enemy. Dave proves himself during a German biplane attack. Recuperating in hospital, he meets a sympathetic nurse, Anne... The regiment is called upon for a bold flanking attack on Beersheba. But how do you convince the Turks the main attack will come at Gaza? And how do you attack across a desert without water?
Palestine, 1948. After the withdrawal of the British occupiers, tensions rise between Arabs and Jews. Meanwhile, Farha, the smart daughter of the mayor of a small village, unaware of the coming tragedy, dreams of going to study in the big city.
Pieni palestiinalaiskylä Bil’in sijaitsee Israelin siirtokuntien kupeessa. Ernad Burnat, elokuvan kuvaaja ja toinen ohjaaja, hankkii kameran kuopuksensa Gibreelin syntymän jälkeen. Pojan kasvun ohella nauhalle taltioituvat kylän tapahtumat. Arkeen sisältyy protesteja, jotka vastustavat miehitystä ja israelilaissotilaita. Väkivallattomuudesta pidetään kiinni vaikka hammasta purren. Vastapuolen sotilaat värjäävät maiseman harmaaksi ampuessaan kovilla panoksilla, heittämällä käsikranaatteja ja kyynelkaasua ihmisjoukkoon. Välillä kuva muuttuu verenpunaiseksi. Valon pilkahduksia tuovat luminen pulkkaretki ja kaiken raskauden keskeltä nouseva nauru. Voimakkaita tunteita herättävä elokuva, joka voitti vuoden 2011 IDFA-festivaalin yleisöpalkinnon ja tuomariston erikoispalkinnon, rytmittyy viiden rikkoutuneen kameran mukaan. Laitteet joko ammutaan tai rikotaan muilla keinoin – isä jatkaa sinnikkäästi kuvaamista.
A Canadian doctor finds her sympathies sorely tested while working in the conflict ravaged Palestinian territories.
An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day. A semi-biographic film, in four chapters, about a family spanning from 1948 until recent times. Combined with intimate memories of each member, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained in their land and were labelled "Israeli-Arabs," living as a minority in their own homeland.
In Alexandria, in 1938, Darley, a young British schoolmaster and poet, makes friends through Pursewarden, the British consular officer, with Justine, the beautiful and mysterious wife of a Coptic banker. He observes the affairs of her heart and incidentally discovers that she is involved in a plot against the British, meant to arm the Jewish underground in Palestine. The plot finally fails, Justine is sent to jail and Darley decides to return to England.
Mustafa and his wife Salwa come from two Palestinian villages that are only 200 meters apart, but separated by the wall. Their unusual living situation is starting to affect their otherwise happy marriage, but the couple does what they can to make it work. Every night, Mustafa flashes a light from his balcony to wish his children on the other side a goodnight, and they signal him back. One day Mustafa gets a call that every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident. He rushes to the checkpoint where he must agonisingly wait in line only to find out there is a problem with his fingerprints and is denied entry. Desperate, Mustafa resorts to hiring a smuggler to bring him across. His once 200-meter journey becomes a 200-kilometer odyssey joined by other travellers determined to cross.
An American ambassador to Israel tries to bring peace to the Middle East conflict through unconventional methods, but his efforts are hampered at every turn and his personal life threatened.
An anti-western propaganda film about the influences of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world, as told from a North Korean perspective.
Eleven-year-old Wardi’s great-grandfather leaves behind a will suggesting looking to the past to find the future. Searching the house, Wardi finds out about her Palestinian homeland from family memories.
The story of the Russian-born, Wisconsin-raised woman who rose to become Israel's prime minister in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
GAZA brings us into a unique place beyond the reach of television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us a cinematic and enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict.
Throughout its entire history the Gaza Strip has been witness to conflict and upheaval. From ancient times this tiny coastal territory, located at a crossroads between continents, has been a pawn whose fate rested in the hands of powerful neighbours.
Filmed between 1973 and 1975, L’Olivier was produced by the Vincennes Cinema Group. This activist collective of teachers and filmmakers, formed on the occasion of this film, attempts to explain the Palestinian problem through interviews. The Olivier was one of the first films to attempt to give substance to what was still largely ignored in the West: the existence of the Palestinian people and their fight to recover their rights. L'Olivier responds to a concern: the already weak support of French public opinion for the Palestinian cause diminished following the Munich operation of 1972. Structured in such a way as to tell the Palestinian story and explain the state of the struggle at the time, the film appeals to global militant solidarity and, in particular, to European political commitments.
Haifa, nicknamed after the city of his love and hope, goes around and comes around in a Palestinian refugee camp. Although he is everybody's fool, there are many things that only he knows. He is closely related to the family of Abu Said, a former policeman who gains new hopes from the political developments. Oum Said, his wife, hangs her hope on the imminent release of their eldest son, Said, from jail. She tries to find him a bride to secure things for the future. Their youngest son, Siad, is cynical and rebellious. He refuses to believe things. Sabah, the 12 year old daughter is romancing the future and wants to find out what's in it for her. The different stories are interwoven into a very timely insight into the current Palestinian mind.
Yacine is the veterinarian of the only zoo remaining in the Palestinian West Bank. He lives alone with his 10-year old son, Ziad. The kid has a special bond with the two giraffes in the zoo. He seems to be the only one to communicate with them. After an air raid in the region the male giraffe dies. His mate, Rita, won’t survive unless the veterinarian finds her a new companion. The only zoo that might provide this animal is located in Tel Aviv ...