2023-10-23 09:59:32
Rivers of ink have been poured, are being poured and will be poured about the conflict in Palestine and Israel, analyzing its causes, effects and consequences, looking for a solution that no one finds. Precisely the current bloody offensive carried out by Hamas against Israel, and the attack on the Gaza Strip, two events that have already accumulated thousands of deaths and injuries, once again put this scenario into question.
Cinema has also dealt with this issue throughout these decades from different points of view and sensibilities. It is very interesting that, through the images, not infrequently an attempt has been made to intercede for a dialogued ending or for an understanding between the parties, rather than a concrete solution. There is nothing that humanizes people more than the big screen makes us see that Human beings, despite our cultural or religious differences, are equal. We love, we hate and, above all, we long to live in peace.
bitter portrait
From Exodus (Otto Preminger, 1960) hasta Huda’s betrayal (Hany Abu-Assad, 2021) the perspectives that cinema has offered about this disputed land are very different. Although the difference in styles and cinematographic composition is varied, fundamentally a exhortation to dialogue and a bitter portrait of life in the Palestinian territories.
To highlight, among a selection of current fiction productions, walk on water (Eytan Fox, 2004), which addresses how prejudice against Palestinians weighs more on Israel than the memory of the Holocaust. The film advocates building a future not from hatebut from love, through the figures of an agent of the Mossad who has seen his wife commit suicide, and a young German, whose grandfather was a Nazi.
Another approach would be to Private address (Saverio Costanzo, 2004). In it, the conflict is recreated in the microcosm of a Palestinian family that sees a group of Israeli soldiers break in and occupy part of their house. The situation becomes a tough test of physical and moral resistance.
Paradise now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005) enters a very delicate world such as suicide terrorism. He does it through two Palestinians whose motivations (or lack thereof), personality and doubts before committing an attack make it evident that both embody a trapped and disoriented generation, easily manipulated by the fans on duty.
movie poster The lemon treesby Eran Riklis. FilmAffinity
The lemon trees (Eran Riklis, 2008) offers the view of the conflict from a female perspective. A lonely and helpless widow sees how an Israeli minister and his wife go to live in front of her house, next to her lemon field, which they want to cut down for security reasons. Loneliness, bitterness and incomprehension make up a reality where the widow is a victim of the tyranny of the conflict, in the metaphor of lemon trees that do not pose a threat to anyone.
Two different visions
Offer both points of view of the situation as a way of create bridges to confront the insurmountable differences that exist between both communities is the starting point of three other films.
The first, The other’s son (Lorraine Levy, 2012), It’s a metaphor about What would happen if a maternity hospital got confused when handing over two babies to their families?. For years, a young Palestinian would live as an Israeli and an Israeli as a Palestinian, until having to return to his place, revealing their traumas, exaggerations and prejudices that have been established between them.
In A bottle in the Gaza sea (Thierry Binisti, 2012), one young Israeli and a young Palestinian They carry out an email exchange. In them they will confront their two visions of the conflict – the fears and fears they feel – until they realize that they embody a new generation that can try to change the situation by trusting the other.
Finally, Crescendo (Dror Zahavi, 2019), inspired by a real orchestra made up of young Israelis and Palestinians, highlights the enormous problems and tensions that exist between both communities. The plot suggests that we must find a way to overcome through love or respect.
Frame of Crescendode Dror Zahavi. FilmAffinity
From laughter…
Comedies have not been lacking either.. Although they have not been lavished so much on the difficulties that the topic entails, they are another way to help dedramatize the appearance of such a harsh reality. This section includes A pig in Gaza (Sylvain Estibal, 2011), in which a poor fisherman finds a pig and suffers a whole series of vicissitudes to try to sell it. It is a well-intentioned film that, however, also openly criticizes Hamas.
Everything happens in Tel Aviv (Sameh Zoabi, 2018) is a very successful comedy in which a young Palestinian becomes the scriptwriter of a Palestinian soap opera, very successful with audiences in Israel, thanks to his collaboration with an Israeli officer who wants to dazzle his wife.
Finally, Gaza My Love (Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser, 2020) related the history of a fisherman who, one day, finds a Greek statue in his nets. The film reveals the sadness and hopes that exist in a miserable territory with no future, but where love and good emotions fit.
movie frame Gaza my loveby Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser. FilmAffinity
…to tears
Also, there are achievements that represent the most heartbreaking and crude side of the conflict such as Inch’Allah (Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, 2012), Omar (2013) y Huda’s betrayal (2021), both of the uncomfortable, but excellent, Palestinian-Israeli filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad.
movie poster Omarby Hany Abu-Assad. FilmAffinity
In the first, a young Canadian volunteer tries to help and contribute her bit by collaborating in a refugee camp in the West Bank. The context is so unfortunate that she herself ends up considering violence as the only way to change things. The plot presents a universe so terrible that It seems that the only way out is terrorist action. But the film is not so much an apology for terrorism as a denunciation of the oppressive and desperate situation that Palestinians are experiencing.
The second is a frustrated love story between two young people caused by the miseries brought about by the cold and cruel nature of conflict. And the third is a approach (and denunciation) to a murky and heartbreaking look at the defenseless situation of Palestinian women and collaborationism.
In short, it is a shame that viewing these stories has not served to reverse this harsh reality.
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