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Signaler: Israel SIGNALS: ISRAEL
Two years ago, Tromsø International Film Festival presented a sidebar of four films that showed initiatives of peace and solidarity between Israelis and Palestinians. Under the heading «Peace and Reconciliation», these films gave us hope that trust and cooperation can replace suspicion and aggression – at least on an individual level. On a political and structural level, such hope is hard to maintain. Two months ago, the Israel/Palestine conflict again erupted into more or less open warfare, and the political stalemate continues over the recognition of a Palestinian state. Which makes this sidebar of films from Israel all the more urgent. Its title «Signals: Israel», points to its ambition: to eavesdrop on a highly complex and conflicted society. Its inhabitants come from all over the world, and from a range of cultural backgrounds. Whether they are orthodox Jews from Jerusalem or secular Tel Aviv cosmopolitans, settlers in occupied territories, Israeli Arabs or desert nomads, they have very different visions for their society. This section presents five of last year’s best films from Israel. Each in their own respect, they present inside perspectives on Israeli society. fill the void is an inside look at a family of orthodox Hasidic Jews in Jerusalem. Herself a member of the community, the director investigates the practice of arranged marriages from a surprising and thought-provoking angle. the cutoff man is a debut fiction feature about the limits of social and personal solidarity. Set in Northern Israel, it follows a working class father trying to make ends meet. The three remaining titles all deal more directly with the Israel/Palestine conflict. soldier/citizen follows Israeli soldiers as they take a course in civic ethics. Their intense debates about human rights and tolerance reveal some striking paradoxes of Israel’s statehood. It documents on-the-groundattitudes towards the conflict, whereas the gatekeepers engages the top of the power hierarchy. Here, six former heads of Israeli intelligence and security reveal their role in «counter-terrorism» campaigns with astonishing candor. Lastly, the fiction feature the attack is set in Tel Aviv and tells of a well-integrated Palestinian surgeon whose life is turned upside-down in the aftermath of a suicide attack. Whatever view we hold of Israel’s role in the ongoing conflict – ruthless aggressor, or victim of suspicion and terror – we owe it to ourselves to try to understand the dynamics of Israeli society and the dilemmas of its inhabitants. Presenting this sidebar is our modest contribution.
