Three Palestinian widows sit fuming in the cramped Hebron apartment they share with their 11 children, as gruff Israeli soldiers posted on the roof come and go at will.
Is it a disgraceful invasion of privacy or a necessary act of self-defense in time of war?
The schism is laid out for all to see in “Detained,” one of nearly 10 occupation-themed films set for screening at this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, which opens Thursday.
It’s been three years since the outbreak of the current intifada in Israel and the territories, enough time for a phalanx of filmmakers to shoulder up their cameras, capture the real-life drama and produce powerful films on the subject.
The best of the lot will be presented at this year’s festival and are sure to stir up controversy.
That’s a promise from Don Adams, new San Francisco Jewish Film Festival director. “The theme of occupation is a primary obsession of the Jewish people right now,” he says. “With an issue so compelling, certainly independent media producers had to take up the subject.”
Now in its 23rd season, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has long been a magnet for controversy.
Only two years ago, former festival director Janis Plotkin found herself in a virtual mikvahful of hot water. Plotkin incurred the wrath of the consul general of Israel by assembling a post-screening discussion panel of left-leaning Jewish peace activists, with no counterbalancing more hawkish views represented. The Israeli Consulate angrily yanked financial support and co-sponsorship of the 2001 festival when Plotkin stood her ground.
All is forgiven now. The consulate is back as a sponsor.
Donny Inbar, cultural attaché at the consulate, says many films on the schedule this year are “very noncommercial, brave and unorthodox. There are some I personally wouldn’t like, but if everything was from Ariel Sharon’s point of view, it would all be cheap propaganda.”
Others have long memories.
Helene Klein, of Americans For a Safe Israel, still fumes about the 2001 flap and what she views as the festival’s generally pro-Palestinian bent. “I was happy about the Israeli Consulate’s withdrawal,” she says.
“I want Jews to be treated fairly. I ask no special privileges, but why should we take the side of our worst enemies? Many Jews unfortunately have an inferiority complex, and they think if they join with their enemies they stand taller. But in truth, they lay low.”
Generating such debate lies at the heart of the festival’s stated purpose, says Adams.
“It’s very important to our core supporters that the Jewish Film Festival continue to raise difficult issues,” he notes, “and use the illuminating power of film to bring out the depth and complexity of these issues. We want to challenge everyone’s view.”
Films on this year’s schedule that examine either the intifada or the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza include “For My Children,” “Galoot” and “Local Angel.” All are by Israeli filmmakers (the last being a work by Udi Aloni, son of Israeli leftist politician and activist Shulamit Aloni).
The imagery they came up with is undeniably striking.
“For My Children” opens with filmmaker Michal Aviad at home, videotaping her kids as they get ready for school. She kisses them goodbye and, looking out the window of her third-story apartment in Tel Aviv, watches them disappear into the city.
Aviad wonders how safe it is out there for her children. Her parents’ generation came to Israel seeking safe harbor after the Holocaust. But mere weeks after the outbreak of the intifada, Aviad begins to feel that haven slowly slipping away. Could it be time to leave Israel for good?
Says Adams: “In personal essay films, filmmakers engage in the same ethical-moral process that all of us are engaged in right now, looking at the situation [in Israel] with eyes wide open. It is a complicated situation with deep historical roots, but the way it often gets reduced to shouted slogans or painted banners does violence to that complexity.”
“Galoot,” by director Asher De Bentolila Tlaim, seeks to unravel that complexity. The title (Hebrew for “exile”) is appropriate. In a string of interviews with Israeli and Palestinian exiles living in England, Poland, Israel and Morocco, the London-based Israeli filmmaker explores the roiling emotions underlying Mideast tensions.
In “The Settlers,” viewers see a virtual mirror image of the setting presented in “Detained.” Director Ruth Walk gained access to a group of Orthodox Jewish women living in the settlement of Tel Romedia, outside of Hebron and just a stone’s throw from the Palestinian widows’ apartment seen in the other film.
Further driving home the point that two civilizations claim the same land, both films will screen together at three different showings.
Shot in and around Gaza over the last 24 months, Ram Loevy’s “Close, Closed, Closure” portrays daily life for residents during a time of extreme hardship and turmoil. In the festival program, Loevy calls Gaza “a prison with 1 million inmates.”
If supporters of Israel take offense at the sympathetic portrait of Palestinians depicted in these films, Adams is not worried. In fact, he welcomes the outcry, as long it leads to meaningful discussion.
“Our audiences will see the anger cultivated by governmental policies and actions in Israel, and the conflict this creates,” he says. “It’s my feeling that the greatest support we can give Israel is to openly discuss issues of public policy as it affects the welfare of the Jewish people.”
It wasn’t hard for Adams to book these films. The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has become a coveted showcase for work of this nature. The films, says Adams, came to him.
“The festival is famous throughout the world for its courage in keeping issues at the forefront, even when it means showing controversial work.”
In fact, so many quality films about the intifada were submitted this year, Adams and his staff at some point had to just say no to some.
“We could have easily programmed twice as many films on the subject,” he says. “We had to restrain ourselves so as not to seem preoccupied with the occupation. I am committed to showing some of those films in other contexts in the months ahead.”
Meanwhile, this year’s festival is top-heavy with material that should matter to Jews, no matter where they may lie on the political spectrum. “These are meditations on the intifada,” says Adams. “They all ask the question: What is Israel supposed to be?”