Budrus

Showing at the Tribeca Film Festival: Budrus, directed by Julia Bacha

Synopsis from the film's website:

A Palestinian leader unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter jumps into the fray.

Ayed Morrar, an unlikely Palestinian community organizer, unites all Palestinian political factions and Israelis. Together, they wage a lengthy lunch-counter-sit-in-style unarmed struggle to save his village from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Victory seems improbable until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. They not only save the village, but the Barrier is pushed back behind the Green Line into No Man’s Land. In the process, Ayed and Iltezam unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary featuring archival footage of this movement from its infancy, Budrus will inspire and challenge audiences worldwide. The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (Control Room, Encounter Point), and produced by Bacha, Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, and filmmaker and human rights advocate Ronit Avni (formerly of WITNESS, Director of Encounter Point).

While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East. Ayed succeeded in doing what many people believe to be impossible: he united all Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas; he brought women to the heart of the struggle through the leadership of his daughter, Iltezam; and he encouraged hundreds of Israelis to cross into Palestinian territory for the first time and join a nonviolent movement.

Budrus includes diverse voices from the leaders of the movement to the Israeli border police officers stationed in the village at that time. While many documentaries about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict either romanticize the notion of peace, or dwell entirely on the suffering of victims to the conflict, this film focuses on the success of a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement. The protagonists not only succeeded in moving the separation barrier completely off Palestinian lands, they also build lasting relationships between Fatah, Hamas and Israeli activists that continue to this day and serve as a model to other communities. The story of Budrus represents what could happen in the region — provided people know about it.

Waiting for Armageddon

Opening at Cinema Village in New York this weekend: Waiting for Armageddon, directed by Kate Davis, David Heilbroner and Franco Sacchi

Synopsis from the film's website:


America's 50-million strong Evangelical community is convinced that the world's future is foretold in Biblical prophecy - from the Rapture to the Battle of Armageddon. This astonishing documentary explores their world - in their homes, at conferences, and on a wide-ranging tour of Israel. By interweaving Christian, Zionist, Jewish and critical perspectives along with telling archival materials, the filmmakers probe the politically powerful - and potentially explosive - alliance between Evangelical Christians and Israel...an alliance that may set the stage for what one prominent Evangelical leader calls "World War III."


The film opens with portraits of three Evangelical families – James and Laura Bagg, a Connecticut couple who work as military jet-propulsion engineers, Tony and Devonna Edwards in McAlester, Oklahoma, and Dr. H. Wayne House in Salem, Oregon—all certain that upon Christ's Second Coming they will be "raptured," or lifted into the skies to join Christ while the rest of humanity suffers for seven years during “The Tribulation." The Edwards' daughters, in particular, struggle with their own future. If they are raptured soon, how will they ever marry, or have children of their own?


Despite their very different lives and locations, all three families find the modern world laden with symbolism that suggests the End Times are at hand, and they proclaim the immense importance of Israel, where the battle of Armageddon will leave the earth ravaged, before Christ creates a new and perfect world.

The film then follows Wayne House and fellow minister Robert Dean as they lead a Christian Study Tour group to Israel — among the tens of thousands of Evangelicals who pour into the Holy Land each year. As Wayne and Robert baptize their entourage in the River Jordon, sing the US national anthem on the Sea of Galilee, proclaim love for Israel, and describe how the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in Islam, must be destroyed in order for Jesus to return, a revealing and controversial relationship between Christian Evangelicals, Jews, and Muslims emerges.

Finally, we follow Wayne House and Robert Dean to a massive gathering in Dallas, Texas, where Evangelicals debate, in highly sophisticated terms, the need to spread Biblical literalism to counter the dangerous effects of post-modernism. The climax of the conference comes as Pastor John Hagee, the enormously influential Texas Minister of an 18,000-member megachurch, declares, "World War III has started."


By portraying the Evangelical apocalyptic worldview from within their community, Waiting for Armageddon seeks to clarify the elusive relationship between Christian Zionists and Jews, and foster dialogue among dissenting groups. In the end, the film asks whether this large American voting block is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of international holy war.

The Little Traitor

Opening this weekend: The Little Traitor, directed by Lynn Roth

Synopsis from the film's website:

Based on the novel Panther in the Basement by the world renowned author, Amos Oz, The Little Traitor takes place in 1947 Palestine, just a few months before Israel becomes a state.

Proffy Liebowitz, a militant yet sensitive twelve year old, has grown up under British occupation and wants nothing more than for the occupying British to get out of his land. Proffy and his two friends are always plotting ways to terrorize the British until one evening, while he’s out after curfew; Proffy is seized by Sergeant Dunlop (Alfred Molina).

Instead of arresting him, Sergeant Dunlop escorts him back home and a friendship begins to develop in the following weeks. Proffy starts to consider Dunlop a father figure, as his own father is cold and remote. Dunlop, lonely and poetic, loves the spirited boy and reads the Book of Samuel, Dunlap’s favorite part of the Bible. Proffy helps Dunlap with his Hebrew while Dunlap teaches Proffy difficult English words and provides the fatherly guidance missing in Proffy’s life.

As neighborhood tensions escalate between the British and the underground Jewish rebellion, their relationship becomes increasingly complicated. While Proffy has learned a great deal from his mentor, he is also shunned by his friends for this friendship and thus called a “traitor” by his neighbors and community. The resulting trial and shock that he could have such genuine affection for his “enemy” will change Proffy’s life forever.

Netflix It: Jellyfish

Available on DVD: Jellyfish, co-directed by Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret

Synopsis from the film's website:

Poignant, often witty and exceedingly cinematic, Jellyfish (Meduzot), tells the story of three very different Tel Aviv women whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked toilet stall, ruining her chance at a dream Caribbean honeymoon. And attending the event with an employer is Joy, a non Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has guiltily left her son behind in her native Philippines.

As this distaff trio separately wends their way through Israel’s most cosmopolitan city, they struggle with issues of communication, affection and destiny—but at times find uneasy refuge in its tranquil seas.

The film was very well reviewed, won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and, personally, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Jaffa

Showing at Cannes today: Jaffa, directed by Keren Yedaya

From the Cannes website:

In the heart of Jaffa, a city nicknamed "the Bride of the Sea" by the Israelis, Reuven's garage is a family business. His daughter Mali and his son Meir, as well as Toufik and Hassan, a young Palestinian and his father, work there for Reuven. No one suspects that Mali and Toufik have been in love for years. As the two lovers are secretly making their wedding arrangements, tension builds between Meir and Toufik…

Keren Yedaya won the Camera d'Or in 2004 for her film Or (My Treasure).

Trailer (with French subtitles):