Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Palestine Film Festival

Eid and My Land

“Eid” is a delightful short film about a young man (called Eid) who lives in a small village in the West Bank.  He combs the land and finds scrap materials which he uses to sculpt miniature models of the vehicles of the occupation.  The film shows how Eid strives to cope with the occupation and the hardships that come from this by channelling his energy into creating art.  It is an incredible example of how an ugly and tragic situation can be turned into something beautiful through the positive outlook of one individual.

“My Land” is a bold documentary style film which explores the attitudes of mainly young inhabitants from different parts of Israel towards the Palestinians that used to live in the houses and land which they now occupy.  The director records a series of moving testimonials by Palestinians now living in refugee camps around the region.  These refugees talk about a range of historical, political and social aspects of their past and present lives showing how they went from being happy, content and living normal and productive lives to having virtually no prospects at all in their current situations.

In the film he interviews the Israelis about their lives and their love of the land before showing them the Palestinian testimonials he recorded.  It was very interesting to see emotions ranging from those who were obviously affected by guilt and discomfort to others who were apparently not affected at all!  Another aspect of the film showed that some of these Israelis had not previously been aware that Palestinians had been forced out of their homes through fear of being killed and had thought that they had moved on through choice. An excellent film which unfortunately demonstrated the impossibility of finding a mutual solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict.

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