Jaffa’s orange is one of the symbols that helped build the Zionist discourse about Palestine: a “desert we have made bloom”.

Based on photographic and cinematographic documents, some going back as far as to the 19th century, Eyal Sivan’s film shows the orange groves at a time when Arab Jaffa was one of Palestine’s most populated and thriving cities.

From the picking of the fruit to its packaging before exportation, the orange was a source of revenue for thousands of peasants and workmen, not only from Palestine, but from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon too. Jews and Arabs worked together in the orange groves. These images were progressively replaced by socialist realist images, Israeli style, depicting labor and songs, emancipated women in shorts, etc.: it was the spreading of the “Jewish Labor”, the socialist call to action, excluding the Arabs. In 1948, Jaffa was ruined under the bombs and most of its population was gone. Jaffa’s orange then became the symbol of an Arab-free Israel. An international advertising campaign imposed the name “Jaffa”, like a trademark, concealing the city of Jaffa, its more than a hundred-year-old orange groves, and the history of the Jewish Arab cooperation over this legendary fruit..

«

In order to tell us this « orange's clockwork » and the taking-over of Jaffa, Eyal Sivan puts on the screen a multitude of images and representations and gives voice to many Palestinian and Israeli interlocutors, historians, writers, researchers, workmen… An outstanding work around archives, photographs, paintings, videos, and powerful testimonies.
Le Monde Diplomatique

With Jaffa, the Orange's Clockwork, Eyal Sivan uncovers, using a metaphor, a century of Israeli-Palestinian history.
Politis

The message of a colonization, meant to bring progress to a world of desolation, becomes an object of ridicule. (...) The film is worth seeing for the questions it raises in the viewer.
Le Monde

A remarkable work of memory.
Télérama

One of this film's interests lies in the pallet of interviewed people. (...) They all tell a vibrant account of life in Jaffa before the oranges became the symbol of the New Israel.
TéléObs

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

 AWARDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• WORLD PREMIERE IN OFFICIEL COMPETITION
    IDFA, Amsterdam, 2009 
• INTERNATIONAL JURY AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
    Filmmaker, Milan, 2009
• YOUNG JURY'S SPECIAL MENTION
    Filmmaker, Milan, 2009 

• AWARD FOR BEST EDITING
    Soleluna International documentary film festival on Islam and the Mediterranean, Palermo, 2010
 

FESTIVALS SELECTION
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• IDFA, International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2009
• Filmmaker, International Documentary film festival Milan, Italy, 2009
• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Durham, NC, USA, 2010
• Nicosia International Documentary Film Festival, Cyprus, 2010
• Bafici, Buenos Aires International Film Festival, 2010
• Bergamo Film Meeting, Bergamo, Italy, 2010
• Beldocs, Belgrada, Serbia, 2010
• London Palestine Film Festival, London, UK, 2010
• Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Canada, 2010
• Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland, 2010
• Planet Doc Review Festival, Warsaw, Poland, 2010
• Documenta Madrid 10, Madrid, Spain, 2010
• Globale FIlmfestival, Berlin, Germany, 2010
• Documentartist International Film Festival, Istanbul, Turkey, 2010
• Sarajevo International Film Festival Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2010
• Dokufest International Documentary and short Film Festival, Prizon Republic of Kosovo, 2010
• Boston Palestine Film Festival, 2010
• Visoes do Sul, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de Portimao, Portimao Algarve, Portugal, 2010
• Memorimage Film Festival Reus, Catalonia Spain 2010
• VERZIO International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Budapest Hungary 2010

@@

© Trabelsi productions [ISR] l Alma films [ISR] l the factory [FR] l Luna blue film [BE] l WDR [ALL] l NOGA Channel8 [ISR] l RTBF [BE]

JAFFA, THE ORANGE'S CLOCKWORK

88 minutes | Video | Color | 16:9 anamorphic | Stereo | 2009
Location : Israel, France
OV : Hebrew, Arabic
Sub-titles : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Arabic


A FILM BY
Eyal Sivan

WITH PARTICIPATION OF, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Sami Abou Shahadeh - Ismaïl Abou Shahadeh - Haïm Gouri
Rona Sela - Elias Sanbar - Amnon Raz Krakotzkin - Gideon Makoff
Aviezer Chelouche - Tomer Chelouche - David Tartakover
Gideon Ofrat - Kamal Boullata - Moustapha Kabha
Mouhamed Hassouna - Shlomo Rizman - Arnon Yitzhaki
Mahmoud Yazbak - Doudik Shalit - Yosef Nahmias
Tal Amit - Roni Nakar - Zvi Kenan

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Erez Miller
CINEMATOGRAPHY
David Zarif
ADDITIONNEL CINEMATOGRAPHY
Vincent Fooy
Rémi Lainé
Shafir Sarusi
SOUND
Oren Raviv
Jean-Jacques Quinet
Asher Saraga
EDITOR
Audrey Maurion
AFTER EFFECT ANIMATION
Erez Miller
GRAPHIC CONCEPTION
Armelle Laborie
SOUND EDITING AND MIX
Jean-Jacques Quinet
ASSISTED BY
Damien Defays
RESEARCH
Marie-Nicole Feret
Tamar Katz
Yodfat Getz
ANIMATION STAND
Rahman Chowdhury
Fred Brown
ON LINE EDITING & COLOR GRADING
Matthew Hawkins
PRODUCTION MANAGER ISRAEL
Galit Cahlon
ASSISTANT CINEMATOGRAPHER
Nati Yehezkel
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Pascale Alibert
TRANSFERS
Michael Mograbi Berger
FRENCH VERSION
Catherine Neuve-Eglise

WITH THE FRENCH VOICES OF
Jean-Mars Delhausse - Thierry Janssens
Serge Kestemont - Fabienne Loriaux
André Pauwels - Philippe Résimont
Philippe Tasquin - Patrick Waleffe

TRANSCRIPTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS
Noa Ben Shalom
Rozeen Bisharat
Oriane Charpentier
Omaya Seddik
Awatef Shiekh
Louise Williams
 

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
Yaakov Gross
Teresa Smith
Joan Yoshiwara
Kathrin Wildhagen
 

PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATION
Laurence Bertron
 

LEGAL SERVICE
Vered Cainar

TECHNICAL SERVICES
Brown & Altman, Tel-Aviv
MATRIX EAST RESEARCH LAB (MERL)
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of East London, UK
Haim Bresheeth , Steve Lauder
STUDIO
Studio 5 sur 5,  Bruxelles
MASTERISATION
Puzzle Film & Vidéo,  Bruxelles
SUB-TITLES
Nice Fellow, Paris

ARCHIVES
BFI National Archives
British Movietone
British Pathé
Footage Farm
Imperial War Museum
L’Atelier des Archives
Gaumont Pathé Archives
Ina
La Maison de la Pub/DR
Archives RTBF - Télévision belge
WDR Archives
Axelrod Collection - Jerusalem Cinematheque - Israel Film Archive
Citrus Marketing Board of Israel
IDF Archive
Israel Broadcasting Authority
Israel Film Services
Keren Kayemeth Le'Israel - Jewish National Fund
Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive - Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Central Zionist Archives
United Studios Archive - Herzliya Studios Ltd
Yad Tabenkin Archive
Ramattan news agency
Library of Congress
Nara

PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Visit Palestine LC-USZC4-8342,
G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection
State of Israel - National photo collection : Daniel Kaplen Zoltan Kluger
Keren Kayemeth Le’israel - Jewish National Fund : Dov Daphnai,
Zoltan Kluger, Ben Noam, Joseph Zweig
Collection Ilan Roth, Herzliyah
Yaakov Ben dov - Werner Braun - Mula Eshet - François Scholten - Khalil Raad - Roger-Viollet

ARTISTIC CREDITS
Emad Abdel Wahhab - Tamam Al-Akhal - Mohieddin Al Labbad - Hilmi Al Touni - Isaam Bader
Nachum Guttman - Abdel Aziz Ibrahim - Raili Liaho - Loeb - Sliman Mansour - Kamil Mughanni
Marc Rubin - Reuven Rubin - Fares Samoor - Ismail Shammout - Suzanne - Zan Studio - Adnan Zbeidi
Ivette & Mazan Qupty Palestinien art collection
David Tartakover private Collection
Nachum Guttman Museum of Art
Reuven Rubin Museum
Collection musée Air France, service du patrimoine historique et culturel d'Air France
The Palestine Poster Project Archives - Liberation Graphics - Dan Walsh

FICTION EXTRAIT
Les Hirondelles ne meurent pas à Jérusalem
Réalisé par Ridha Behi - Production Baba Films - Alya Films

MUSIC
Les oranges de Jaffa - Lyrics by Jean Marcland / Music byJoseph Mengozzi
© Warner Chappell Music France
Yafa - Music by Reem Kelani / Poem by Mahmoud Salim al-Hout
preformed by Reem Kelani / Piano : Zoe Rahman
Yaffa - Rahbani Brothers, Joseph Azar
Yafa Albal - Ghazi Sharqawi
Eshkolit - Traditional, Zeev Havatselet, Hadudaim, edited by: Eastronics
Shuvi shuvi la pardes - Yehudith Ravitz Meir Wiezelter Arik Sinai, edited by NMC united
Tapuah zahav - Yohanan Zarai Hayim Hefer Shlishiat Gesher Hayarkon, edited by Israphon
Bapardes layad hashoket - Nurit Hirsch, Yoram Taharlev, Yehoram Gaon, edited by NMC united
Mi ivne bait - Nachum Nardi, Levin Kipnis, Ofra Haza, edited by Hed Arzi music, NMC united
Be’mdinat ha’tapuz - Efraim Shamir, edited by Anana LTD, Mohar Eli, Rivka Zohar,
edited by Hed Arzi music, NMC united

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ALL ARCHIVES SHOWN IN THIS FILM WERE REEDITED

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Tamam Al-Akhal - Ridha Behi - Tal Ben Zvi - Ronit Chacham - Mona Deeb
Anat Even - Lily Farhoud - Shmulik Grub - Patrick Hepner - Armelle Laborie
Yaël Lerer - Maria Nadotti - Laura Malacart - Merav Ram - Adrian Rivkin
Rasha Salti - Nava Schreiber – Naomi Shavit - Karin Sivan – Dror Osnat
Uri Aylon - Nurit Bat Yaar - Guy Binshtok - Sameer El-Hajj - Mula Eshet
Avner Kahanov - Mazan Qupty – Dan Yahav
Sinai Abt - Gad and Yoav Ben Artzi - Nahman Ingbar - Lior Ohad
Eyal Openhaim - Minkov Museum - The first orchard in Rehovot
Carmit Rapaport - Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites Hadas Beeri
Kaleen Gay-Para - Aloïse Jancovic - Laureline Edom - Nicolas & Camille Couderc

A COPRODUCTION OF
Trabelsi Productions
Osnat Trabelsi
Ori Duvnov
Talia Salomon
Alma Film
Arik Bernstein
the factory
Frank Eskenazi
Hortense Quitard
Claire Cochard
Eurydice Calméjane
Luna blue film
Serge Kestemont
Héléna Fages
Charlotte Bosquet
Nacho Carranza - Denis Delcampe
Bart Decoster - Ingrid Ingelrham
Catherine Kessels
WESTDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK (WDR)
Documentary Supervisor Jutta Krug
NOGA Communications - Channel 8
Projects Development Liran Atzmor
RTBF (télévision belge)
Associated Producer Annick Lernoud
Production Manager Philippe Antoine
Documentary Supervisor Wilbur Leguebe

WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Communauté française de Belgique
et des Télédistributeurs wallons
Centre National de la Cinématographie
Procirep - Société des Producteurs
Angoa

WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF
Radio–Canada
Jean Pelletier, Georges Amar
Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR)
Documentary Film Unit
Irène Challand, Gaspard Lamunière
France Télévisions
Documentary Pole
Pierre Block de Friberg
Carlos Pinsky
Barbara Hurel
Philippe Le More
Valérie Verdier-Ferré
Press
Philippe Broussard
 

Cinémas Utopia

Festival Visions du Réel

France 5 

Palestine Poster Project

www.trabelsiproductions.com

www.eyalsivan.net

Route 181, offers an unusual vision of the inhabitants of Palestine-Israel, a common vision of an Israeli and a Palestinian.

In the summer of 2002, for two long months, Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi travelled together from the south to the north of their country of birth, traced their trajectory on a map and called it Route 181. This virtual line follows the borders outlined in Resolution 181, which was adopted by the United Nations on November 29th 1947 to partition Palestine into two states.

As they travel along this route, they meet women and men, Israeli and Palestinian, young and old, civilians and soldiers, filming them in their everyday lives. Each of these characters has their own way of evoking the frontiers that separate them from their neighbours: concrete, barbed-wire, cynicism, humour, indifference, suspicion, aggression…Frontiers have been built on the hills and in the plains, on mountains and in valleys but above all inside the minds and souls of these two peoples and in the collective unconscious of both societies.

Route 181, Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel, takes us on a disorientating journey across this tiny territory with vast ramifications.

ABOUT THE FILM

Route 181 follows the borders drawn up by UN Resolution 181 which was adopted by the UN on 29^th November 1947 to separate Palestine into two states – one Jewish and one Arab. 56% of the territory was attributed to the Jewish minority while 43% was given to the Arab majority, with a small central area given over to international supervision.

Route 181, fragments of a journey in Palestine-Israel is divided into three chapters. 
Each chapter traces a part of "route 181" :

THE SOUTH, from the port city of Ashdod to the frontiers of the Gaza Strip.

THE CENTRE, from the Jewish-Arab city of Lod to Jerusalem.

THE NORTH, from Rosh Ha’ayn, near the new separation wall, to the Lebanese borders.

Both filmmakers are convinced that the situation in the Middle East is an ideological/pathological construct made by men, which can therefore be unmade by them.

Their journey was peripatetic and led them to the most arbitrary of encounters.

No appointments were organised beforehand, no personalities contacted, no “official” interlocutors.

Armed only with authorisations to film, they stopped and filmed : anonymous Israelis and Palestinians who speak of their lives, their experiences, their situations, their persoanl memories and understandings of what is happening around them today. These people speak also of tomorrow and what could become of them and their country.

This theoretical border, which was presented as a «solution», led to the outbreak of the first Arab-Israeli war and to a conflict, which remains far from resolved.

55 years later, the journey of these two filmmakers along “route 181” traces a border which never actually existed.

Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan wanted to take this joruney together to listen with the ears of the other and to come nearer, each with the help of the other, to those whom fear usually keeps apart.

To understand. To convey what is desired and experienced ; distinguish people’s dreams from political projects ; hear what one wants to forget; listen to the other – this is how this journey in search of a possible peace and a life together has the qualities of an initiation.

In their project notes, the two filmmakers write:

"Despite the tribal allegiances imposed on us, which we reject, and armed with our common experience, we decided to return to our country. By doing so, we wanted to unveil the geographic and mental reality in which the men and women of Palestine-Israel are living today.

"The demarcation line of the Partition Plan for Palestine, drawn up and voted by the UN in 1947, was the starting point of our film. For us, it represented both a documentary challenge and promises of a rich human adventure.

"Along this demarcation line, which does not in fact exist, we wanted to film, in a particular way, men and women, places, all previously unseen. During these chance meetings, we listened together to the varying sounds of people, to their passions and disillusionment. We provoked – in us but also in our interlocutors – a relationship of love in response to a daily reality saturated with danger and overwhelmed by death. The voices of those forgotten by official discourse will we hope, be heard – the voices of those who nonetheless constitute the majority in both societies, those in whose name wars are fought.

"We wished to construct a film which resists the idea that the only thing Israelis and Palestinians can do together is fight wars until they are both driven to oblivion."

—

This film does not have two points-of-view but a common one emanating from two complimentary visions. Whatever the unease which their journey may cause us, Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan invite us to follow in their footsteps.

TO THE SOUTH: From Ashdod to Gaza

Ashdod. On the seaside, a building site in progress. Israeli foremen, Chinese workers and Palestinian (Israeli citizen) surveyors are working together.

Gan Yavne is built on the ruins of Barkaa village. A fruit-juice saleswoman is running a small shop on the roadside. She speaks about the right to return. Further on, the manager of a building site refuses to speak about any political issues.

Kiriat Malahi. In his shop, a candy salesman, a Jew from Iraq, remembers his past. He tells us with nostalgia that, in the past, there were a lot of Palestinian villages around.

Shafir. In front of his house, a young high-tech engineer speaks about his neighbours, workers from the Gaza Strip. His father tells the story of this village, built in 1949 by European survivors.

In the museum of the kibboutz Yad Mordechai, an old pioneer tells how the Palestinian inhabitants were expelled towards the Gaza Strip.

Kibboutz Negba. A statue, a Stalinist-looking monument and a scale model of the kibbutz in its beginning remind us of the socialist dream underlying the Zionist project.

In Gaza, the Karni check-point is closed to any civilian access. Some goods trucks have to wait in front of the blocked borderline. No way to cross any of the other checkpoints all around the Gaza Strip.

The "concertina" is manufactured there. It is a special barbed wire with several layers, for which a patent was registered by the factory's owner. It sells very well, in Israel and abroad.

On the border with the Gaza Strip, an Israeli family visits the water reservoir of Nir Am and contemplates the Gaza Strip, which remains closed.

The retired military commandant of the Southern Region during the 1948 war is now the manager of the museum of Nir Am. He explains how the Negev was imposed on the UN Partition commission as a Jewish area. He concludes with his dreams for a tourist development on the frontier.

Beit Hanoun. It is forbidden to film in the military base. But it is allowed to film the electrical fence, which surrounds the Gaza Strip.

Not far from the frontier with Gaza, in the middle of nowhere, there is a white house that a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz wishes to transform into an art gallery.

The night falls on the deserted Erez check-point.

This evening, the Herzl House is rented out for the celebration of a great wedding.

THE CENTRE: From Lod City to the Jerusalem area

In the Centre for New Immigrants in Lod, Russian musicians play melodies from Eastern Europe to greet new immigrants just arrived from Ethiopia who seem visibly perplexed.

In front of the town hall, a group of Jews and Arabs from the movement "Living Together" [ta’yoush] demonstrate against the demolition of houses planned for the Arab districts of the city. At the same time, the local council discusses these demolitions.

In the quarter called "ghetto", a woman who was political prisoner for years and her Jewish neighbour live side by side. In his hairdressing salon, the old barber speaks about the expulsion of the Palestinian inhabitants of Lod (Lydd), a big Arab city before 1948.

On the way to the kibbutz Geser, a Jewish man from Russia regrets to have immigrated in Promised Land. Further on, a Bedouin leading his herd dreams of joining the Israeli army.

In Kibbutz Geser, a group of American Protestants from Kansas plant a few olive-trees as a solidarity gesture with Israel. The ceremony is conducted by a woman rabbi and her husband, both of them American Jews.

On the way to Jerusalem, the ruins of the Palestinian villages are visible.

In Kfar Binoun, a sculptor, son of Holocaust survivors, speaks about the ordeal suffered by his mother during the war. For him, building his personal heaven for himself and his family is a kind of revenge.

In Hulda, a guide of the Jewish National Fund welcomes the visitors to Herzl House in Hulda. Like all the Jewish villages built on the sides of the road to Jerusalem, Hulda was built on the ruins of a Palestinian village.

There are several military checkpoints on the road approaching Jerusalem.

Kalandia is the biggest military checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah. This is also an opportunity to discuss with the duty soldiers about the importance of being polite.

In a military tribunal, a human rights Israeli lawyer defends young Palestinians accused of being suicide bombers. The court is under high surveillance. The families of the defendants are here. When the mothers try to kiss their sons, the young soldiers immediately stop them. It is forbidden to touch the defendants.

In Abou Dis, the big concrete wall cuts through the town. A Palestinian geographer explains that the settlement-building all around Jerusalem is part of a global colonisation strategy.

Several houses of suicide bombers’ families were dynamited during the night by the Israeli army. Then, entire families find themselves out on the street. They walk through the ruins of their houses expressing their anger.

Since a suicide-attack in Jerusalem was just announced, the zone is totally closed. At the Al-Ram check-point, a soldier spontaneously goes to the camera to give his explanations, which he wants to be transmitted all over the world.

Ramallah is totally empty, under curfew. The Israeli army is there, controlling any movement. From his tank, the commandant speaks about literature and philosophy.

The road between Bethleem and Beit Jala is closed. The guests of a Palestinian wedding that is to be celebrated there have to use small tracks and climb over piles of earth. But the military occupation is unable to prevent the wedding party from taking place.

TO THE NORTH: From the city of Rosh A’aiyn to the Lebanese border

In Rosh A'Aiyn, on the ruins of Majdal Sadek, a Jewish Yemenite jogger runs with his dog. There, he denies totally the destruction of any village in 1948.

The highway to the North is all new, like the separation wall built on its side.

Near Kalkylia, in a small archaeological place, the workers are Palestinian and the archaeologists Israeli. Next to it, workers are building the wall. They are Arab, Turkish-Bulgarian, Uzbek...

Surrounded by Israeli positions, the city of Kalkylia is under curfew.

In Tulkarem, soldiers stop a group of demonstrators from the Jewish-Arabic movement Ta’ayoush (living together). They have to cross the hills to bring food to the inhabitants of the Palestinian city under siege. Access is impossible.

In Bir Sika, inspectors of the Rabbinate inspect the harvest and ensure that it is kosher. The owner explains how he moved the borders of his land….

In the region of Emek Ysrael, at night fall, fighter planes come back to their military air base, in the middle of the Jezreel Valley. A jogger from a neighboring kibbutz thinks that the current settlements took the place of the yesterday's kibbutzim.

In kibbutz Yifat, employees of the Pioneer Settlement Museum perform a play which recounts the story of the first pioneers in front of young and old visitors.

The town of Lubia is in ruins. A group of Israeli teenagers, protected by an armed guard, walk where the town once stood.

The manager of the Museum of Sejera, an immigrant from the United Kingdom, describes his personal story as a continuation of the pioneers', who installed themselves here, at the beginning of the 20th century.

In Tura'An, an old Palestinian woman, surrounded by her grandchildren, speaks about her expulsion from Sejera, only 4 kilometres from there, where she used to live until 1948.

Next to the war memorial in Nujeidat, a group of Israeli Arab pupils discuss questions of identity.

An old man we meet at the entrance of kibbutz Farud, speaks in detail and without hesitation or compunction about how he took part in the expulsion of the Arab inhabitants of the North of Palestine during the war. This operation was called "Operation Broom".

In the village of Kfar Shammaï, a girl reads an inscription on a wall: "We had a dream. Now we have a maybe." A Jewish woman from Morocco explains how she took part, when she was a teenager, in the illegal immigration of Moroccan Jews.

Meron is a religious place. It is always bedlam. Everything can be bought, everything sold. In a mixture of deafening sounds, young religious men dance together.

In Shefer. He is a Jew from Morocco. She is a Jew from Tunisia. Both of them live together in the nostalgia of their countries of origin. “Our youngest son died during the Lebanon War” she tells us. Beside it, they are sure that Jewish and Arab peoples can live peacefully together, like it was in the past.

The sun falls on the barbed wire of the frontier with Lebanon.

«

Each interview is like a bombshell, the words exchanged are so full of confusion or hatred
Le Figaro

A film quite critical of Israel, overwhelming sometimes, but exciting and revealing
Le Monde

A great testimony, imbued with the desire to live and build together
France Soir

A documentary with the effect of a bomb
Télérama

A complete film, a successful documentary challenge
La Vie

Going against received ideas, the two filmmakers revisit the territories, to prove that "Palestinians and Israelis can make something together other than war"
Humanité Hebdo

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

AWARDS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• HUMAN RIGHTS FESTIVAL AWARD
    Paris, France, 2004
• MAYOR AWARD, INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
    Yamagata, Japan, 2005

FESTIVALS SELECTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Festival du Monde Arabe, Montréal, 2003
• Festival of Arab, Iranian and South Asian Films, New-York, 2003
• Festival Cinéma du Réel, Paris 2004
• Festival de Rabat, 2004
• Festival Manifesta, San Sebastian, 2004
• Festival de Carthage, 2004
• Festival de Haïfa, 2004
• Festival de San Fransisco, 2004
• Festival de Washington, 2004
• Festival “Filmer à tout prix”, Bruxelles 2004
• Dokma Festival, Slovénie, 2004
• Festival de Singapour, 2005
• Festival de Philadelphie, 2005
• Festival International de Jeonju, Seoul, 2005

© momento! [FR] l SOURAT FILMS [BE] l WDR [ALL] 

ROUTE 181, FRAGMENTS OF A JOURNEY IN PALESTINE-ISRAEL

272 minutes | Video | Colour | 16:9 anamorphic | Stereo | 2003
Location : Israel, Palestine
OV : Hebrew, Arabic
Sub-titles : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Arabic


A FILM WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY
Eyal Sivan & Michel Khleifi

PRODUCTION
ARMELLE LABORIE
CAMERA
Philippe Bellaïche
SOUND
Richard Verthé
EDITING
Sari Ezouz
Eyal Sivan
Michel Khleifi
SOUND EDITOR
SARI EZOUZ
SOUND DUBBING
STÉPHANE LARRAT

CO-PRODUCERS
OMAR AL-QATTAN, SINDIBAD FILMS LTD
WERNER DÜTSCH, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln
MICHEL KHLEIFI, SOURAT FILMS SPRL
ALAIN BOTTARELLI
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
ARTE France 
WITH SUPPORT FROM
Centre National de la Cinématographie

...



The Specialist is a courtroom drama painting the portrait of a zealous bureaucrat who has immense respect for the Law and hierarchy, a police official responsible of the elimination of several million people, a modern criminal.

The prosecution describes the accused as a blood-thirsty pervert, the Machiavellian liar and a serial-killer yet he appears as a quiet family man, both comic and terrifying in his banality. Although he doesn't deny the role he played in the criminal enterprise that he belonged to, he shelters behind the instructions of his superiors, his vow of allegiance and the obligation of obey orders.

He considers that his role as a mere agent, a purely administrative and logistic one, devoid of all passion, shelters him from the justice of men, even through it may not exempt him from all responsibility.

The accused, Adolf Eichmann, is a man of average height, in his fifties, shortsighted, nearly bald and wracked by nervous tics. Throughout his trial, he sits in a glass box, surrounded by neat piles of documents that he ceaselessly notes, re-reads and leafs through. An expert on emigration and specialist in the "Jewish issue", responsible for the transportation of "racial deportees" to the Nazis camps between 1941 and 1945, he describes his work with suffocating bureaucratic precision. Before the court and the witnesses who survived the hell that he consigned them to, he admits to having provided the death factories with human convoys for destruction. He struggles to show the conflict between his duty and his conscience and insists on the fact that no one can accuse him of having done his job badly.

Intoxicated on the dizziness of his own powerlessness, the accused describes himself as "a drop in the ocean, an instrument in the hands of superior forces". If he hadn't done it, he says, someone else would have done it instead.

The contrast between the monstrous nature of the crime and the mediocrity of the accused is immediately striking and becomes even more apparent during the thirteen scenes making up this documentary feature, revealing the portrait of a terrifyingly ordinary man. 

The Specialist is composed exclusively of the previously unseen 350 hours of footage recorded during the dramatic trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in Jerusalem in 1961. This film about obedience and responsibility portrays a specialist of problems solving, a modern criminal.

«

For all the questions it raises, The Specialist is an essential film, a work dusting people's conscience.
Historia

Eyal Sivan sketches a masterful reflection about disobedience-know-how as an essential component of our humanity.
Charlie Hebdo

The Specialist is an exemplary reflection on the banality of absolute evil.
Le Nouvel Observateur

Gripping, terrifying.
Télérama

The Specialist is a philosophical essay which clearly shows that cinema can be a tool for reflection and not just a vehicle for emotions. More than it is a duty to remember, it is a duty to think that the authors, Rony Brauman and Eyal Sivan, inspire; they wish to break the emotional opposition between the executioner and victim in order to lead us to consider what Hannah Arendt called "the banality of evil". (…) they claim the complete exercise of intelligence in order to reveal the deep structures of the human mind and of modern societies.
Le Figaro

You should watch The Specialist by Rony Brauman and Eyal Sivan. Watch and debate.
L’Histoire

A (philosophical) film of the family of films with no family that invents a new form of history thinking, at a key moment in history.
Positif

Without hesitation, The Specialist may be the most important film made about the hitlerian "machine".
L’Autre Rive

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

AWARDS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• ADOLF GRIMME AWARD
    Germany, 2001

FESTIVALS SELECTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Berlin International Film Festival - Official Selection, 1999
• Doc Aviv, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 1999
• Internationales Dokumentarfilm Festival, München, 1999
• Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, 1999
• Toronto International Film Festival, 1999
• Mostra Internacional de Cinema, Sâo Paulo, 1999
• Sheffield International Documentary Festival, 1999
• Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, 1999
• Duisburger Filmwoche, Germany, 1999
• Tubingen french film Festival, Germany, 1999
• Australian International Documentary Conference, 1999
• Festival France Cinema Firenze, Italy, 1999
• Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York USA, 1999
• Festival of Jewish Cinema, Melbourne-Sydney-Perth, Australia, 1999
• Mumbai Festival of Films, India, 1999
• International Meeting Cinema & History, Istanbul Turkey, 1999
• Cinemateket Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm Sweden, 2000
• Human Rights Watch Film Festival, London UK, 2000
• Diagonale 2000 Graz, Austria, 2000
• Hong Kong International Film Festival, 2000
• Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente, Argentina, 2000
• INPUT 2000, Halifax Canada, 2000

© momento production [FR] | BIFF [ALL] IMAGE CRÉATION [BEL] AMYTHOS Film & TV Productions [ISR] LOTUS Film [AUT] FRANCE 2 Cinéma - Westdeutscher Rundfunk [ALL]  RTBF Télévision belge [BEL]

THE SPECIALIST

128 min | 35mm | B&W | 4:3 | Dolby SRD  | 1999
Location : archive footage
OV : Hebrew, German
Sub-titles : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Croatian

A FILM BY
Rony BRAUMAN & Eyal SIVAN

With

The Accused
Adolf EICHMANN
Defence Attorney
Robert SERVATIUS
Attorney General
Gideon HAUSNER
Assistant Attorney 
Gabriel BACH Ya'akov BAR OR
Presiding Judge
Moshe LANDAU
Judges 
Benjamin HALEVI
Yitzhak RAVEH

Based on « Eichmann in Jerusalem, a Report on the Banality of Evil » by Hannah Arendt
Viking Penguin USA Inc. 1963 - Gallimard 1966

Directed and produced by
Eyal SIVAN

based on footage recorded in 1961 in Jerusalem, at the Adolf Eichmann trial,
by
Léo HURWITZ

Executive Producer 
Armelle LABORIE
Film Editor
Audrey MAURION
Sound Editors
Nicolas BECKER
Audrey MAURION
Digital Lighting Design
Jean-Marc FABRE
Sound Design
Nicolas BECKER
Mix
Philippe BAUDHUIN
Thomas GAUDER
Original Music
Nicolas BECKER
Jean-Michel LEVY
Krishna LEVY
Yves ROBERT
Béatrice THIRIET
Production Manager
Yves SMADJA
Post-Production Advisor
Thierry NUTCHEY
Associate Producers
Martine BARBÉ
Amit BREUER
Erich LACKNER
Elke PETERS
Production Administrator
Marysette MOISSET, Hasdrubal
Assistant Director
Armelle LABORIE
Assistant Film Editors
Valérie PICO
Maya CYPEL
Assistant Sound Editors
Valérie PICO
Coline BEUVELET
Trainee Editors
Pauline LEMAIRE
Idit RICHARDOT
Production Assistants
Sophie ALBIAR
Chen-Li BAR-TZION
Elke BORMANN
Sabine BOURGEOIS
Barbara JOHR
Joanna GRUDZINSKA
Monika LENDL
Claudia LEVIN
Musicians
Thomas BLOCH - Glass harmonica
Jean-Michel LEVY - Guitares
Yves ROBERT - Trombone
Choir
Mélanges, dirigée par Ariel ALONSO

Archives
Israel State Archives
Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive Vendeuse : Marylin KOOLIK
United Studio Hertzelia
Archive Remastering Technical Pattern
Patrick D'ARTOIS
Technical Advisors for Archive Remastering
Mario SCLAIR - ON SET
GRAVITY Post-production
Archive Remastering Technicians
Tim RINGHAM
Alexander SHAPIRO - ON AIR
Alexander PAPIRO - ON AIR
Transcoding of Archive Footage
Damien MAUREL
Restoration Software Design
François HELT, DUST Restauration
DUST Restauration Technical Unit
Philippe CHATEL
Valérie LA TORRE
John MONTEGUT
Jean-François RIDAME
Logistics Management DUST Restauration & Shooting
Hervé de CANTELOUBE
Catherine GASIGLIA
INA Innovation
Maurice OLIVIER
Raymond PERRIN
Jean VARRA
INA Rights et Archives
Jean-Jacques DESSAUX
Digital Post-Production Co-ordinator
Armin ERTL, VOSS tv-ateliers
Digital Post-Production Supervisor
Stefan HELMKE
Digital Effects Supervisor
Carsten DIETZ
Computer Systems Supervisor
Rainer Maguhn
Head Special Effects Operator
Jörn Mayer
Digital Effects Preparation
Frank NOCKE
André PAULSEN
Special Effects Operators
Uta Rath
Arndt Baumüller
Susa Lie
Daniel Brylka
Christiane Grunenberg
Martin Ofori
Deborah Bliklen
Martin Fritz
Computer Graphic Artists
Stéphanie MEE
Patricia MEDJAHED
Bernard MAGAU
Claire SCHNEE
Marcel Appelhans
Cara ERTL
Halis KAYA
Kay Klesing
Annke Kraemer
Dirk Schmidt
Tobias Schoden
Ulrike Wilhelmy
Video Conforming
Armin ERTL
Norbert FRERICH
Eric MARTIN
Digital Post-Production Assistants
Lisa DRECKMANN
Lucas Meyer-Hentschel
Grading
Jean-Pierre GALLET
Eduard HERMANN
Post-Production Sound Co-ordinator
Olivier REY
Sound Logistics Co-ordinator
Dominique JOCHMANS
Remastering Archive Sound
Yisraël DAVID
Music and Sound Effects Recording
Myriam RENÉ
Benoit MENAGER
Nathalie VIDAL
Stéphane WERNER
Sound Engineers
Eric LONNI
Raphaël SOHIER
Nathalie VIDAL
Recorders
François DE MAN
Luc THOMAS
Frédéric WARNOTTE
Optical Transfer
David GILLAIN
Frédéric PIROTTE
Researchers
Maira COHEN
Efrat MICHAELI
Translators
Philippa BENSON
Margarete GERBER
Abraham GERSHOVITZ
Sophie Francis KID
Anne KRAATZ
Tania KRAMER
Alexandra MULLER
Lisa NÜRNBERGER
Annie WEICH
Sub-title Adaptation
Rony BRAUMAN
Catherine NEUVE-EGLISE
Marie-Claude REVERDIN
Andreas WIRTH
Recording
I.N.A.
Studio L'Equipe
Studio Orlando
Son Pour Son
Mix Auditorium
Studio L'Equipe
Editing Equipment
 Interface GmbH Allemagne
Sony Austria GmbH
Digital Studios
UMT - France
ERCIDAN - France
VOSS tv-ateliers - Allemagne
Digital Image Processing
DUST Restauration - France
Digital Transfer to 35mm Film

Film Laboratories
CENTRIMAGE - NEYRAC
LISTO Film GmbH Autriche
Sub-titling
Ercidan - France
Titra Film - Autriche
Stills Laboratory
Mise au Point
International Transport
MIDNITE EXPRESS
Production Accountants
Philippe CHATILLON
Sandrine  JOUAULT
Certified Accountant
Sophie BARGE
Literary Agent
La Nouvelle Agence
Legal Advisors
Maître Sabine CORDESSE
Maître Patrick HAUDUCŒUR
Advocat Orna LIN
Maître Claudine MEYRAND
Press Attachée
Eva SIMONET
Credits
ERCIDAN
SYNCHRO FILM
Trailer
Franck LAMBERTZ
A Coproduction By
MOMENTO !  - France
BREMER INSTITUT FILM / FERNSEHEN - Germany
IMAGE CRÉATION - Belgium
AMYTHOS Film & TV Productions - Israel
LOTUS Film - Austria
FRANCE 2 Cinéma - Pierre HÉROS
Westdeutscher Rundfunk - Werner DÜTSCH
RTBF Télévision belge - Jacques VIERENDEELS & Ives SWENNEN

ITGABER, he will overcome

Using vocabulary that can be understood by everyone, the philosopher opens himself up with a critical reflexion about what makes Man : his will power, his freedom, what he chooses, the tasks he sets himself, and how by “Triumphing over Oneself”, he goes above the others of this world.

Inspiration for the movement of Israeli soldiers who refuse to do their military service in the Occupied Territories, Professor Yeshayahu Leibovitz, who has always been very attached to the idea of divine law, explains, in a very provocative way, his position with regards to the law and authority in general, and with regards to the Israeli State and government in particular.

In the tradition of the Prophets, his uncompromising words force each individual to face up to their responsibilities, both as a human being and as a citizen.

IZKOR, slaves of memory

Izkor means "remember" in Hebrew and this film looks in depth at this imperative that is imposed on the children of Israel. In Israel during the month of April feast days and celebrations take place one after another. School children of all ages prepare to pay tribute to their country's past. The collective memory becomes a terribly efficient tool for the training of young minds. Izkor, is a portrait of the Israeli society that has never been shown before, thirty days in the life of a state that lives to the rhythm of its memory. This award-winning film puts forward a passionate and severe analysis of the Hebrew state.

«

ITGABER, he will overcome

The film preserves an oratorical art, made of imprecations, brisures, silences and repetitions, peculiar to the subtle and grandiloquent prophets the Jewish people has always had. (...) The cathodic dimension is never lost, Leibowitz is set face to face with previous shootings, through a video - tape recorder. This device attempts to shake up a thought system, as well as tracking it. Not fooled but fascinated, this document exasperates and delights.
Télérama

Original because despite of the strong personality of his interlocutor, the director succeed in keeping a loyal distance which doesn't deprive the spectator of his freedom of perception. In front of Eyal Sivan's camera, Yeshahyaou Leibowitz casts many roles : the scientific philosopher delivers the argued fruits of his thoughts and knowledge, the citizen fires against the established order, the interviewed returns the questions to the interviewer and comments it. The whole thing is to be heard and watch with delight.
Différences

Whether you side with Leibowitz' thoughts or feel a fierce hatred towards him, this film instructs and shakes you up. Rare qualities in this day and age.
Journal des lettres et de l'audiovisuel

«

IZKOR, slaves of memory

An in-depth, uneasy and disturbing reflection on the roots of Israeli nationalism.
Le Monde

This painful and great documentary leaves you alone and despaired, with your conscience beating wildly.
Télérama

Izkor, the excellent documentary by Eyal Sivan, shows how the month of April is strategic for spreading Zionsim, Israel's founding ideology, in the young generations.
Libération

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

AWARDS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Izkor, slaves of memory
• PROCIREP AWARD, Jury's Special Mention
    FIPA, 1991
• INVESTIGATION PRIZE, Biennale Européenne du Documentaire
    Marseille, 1991
• GOLD LENSE
    Tel-Aviv, 1991

© Les films d'ici [FR] | Images et Compagnies [FR] | Amythos Films [ISR] | FR3 [FR]

ITGABER

2 X 85 minutes | video | Colour | 4:3 |Stereo | 1993
Location : Israel
OV : Hebrew
Sub-titles : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German

 Author
Eyal Sivan

Director of Photography
Rony Katzenelson
Sound
Amir Buverman
Editing
Eyal Sivan & Charlotte Tourres
Producer
Ruben Korenfeld

© Ima Production [FR] | Reha Film [FR] | Adam [ISR] | FR3 [FR] | ZDF [ALL]

IZKOR

97 minutes | 16 mm | Colour | 4:3 | Stereo | 1991
Location : Israel
OV : Hebrew
Sub-titles : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Arabic

Author
Eyal Sivan

Director of Photography
Rony Katzenelson
Sound
Rémy Attal
Editing
Jacques Cometz & Sylvie Pontoizeau
Producer
Ruben Korenfeld

...

Mr B has worked for twenty years as a public servant "in service of the people". Out of love. An unconditional and absolute love for "his people". A blind and destructive love.
When the times change and the regime he adheres to is defeated, he becomes a social reject and life as he has always known it falls apart.
Fired from his job, his "House", Mr B. is left with nothing, no perspective, no future. He sits alone in this office which is no longer his. Once he walks out that door, he will never come back.

In February 1990, a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Ministry for State Security of the GDR is dismantled. This marks the end of the "Stasi", the East German secret police. Major B. was a Stasi officer.
Relieved of his duties, he delivers a detailed account of twenty years of his life and work within this institution.

I love you all is based on this extraordinary personal testimony, supported by never seen before archive footage. This is a film about surveillance and blindness, about faith and disillusion.

«

The whole art of the film is precisely summoning images from the past in order to monitor the present
L'Humanité

An exciting X-ray of the devotion of some zealous patriots
Ciné Live

Enlightening. Taking on the point of view and the language of the police power is what makes this film intelligent, far more disturbing than an indictment.
Télérama

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

FESTIVALS SELECTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Official selection, Berlin Festival, Germany, 2004
• Buenos Aires International Independant Film Festival, Argentina, 2004
• Festival de Ghent, Belgium, 2004

© ARCAPIX [FR] et zéro film [ALL]

I LOVE YOU ALL

88 minutes | Video | Colour, B/W | 4:3 | Stereo | 2004
Location : Germany and archive footage
OV : German or French
Sub-titles : English

Directors
Eyal Sivan et Audrey Maurion

based on the book
“ Pour l’Amour du Peuple, un officier de la Stasi parle ”. Éditions Albin Michel
Adaptation
Eyal Sivan, Audrey Maurion, Aurélie Tyszblat
based on an idea by
Gilles-Marie Tiné
with the voice of
Hanns Zischler
Artistic Advisor
Cornelia Klauss
Editor
Audrey Maurion
Assisted by
Mirjam Strugalla, Nicolas Gundelwein
Archive Research
Cornelia Klauss
Assisted by
Karin Fritzsche, Mirjam Strugalla
Cinematographer
Peter Badel
Sound
Werner Phillipp
Sound Conception
Audrey Maurion
Sound Editing
Audrey Maurion, Dirk W. Jacob
Additional Sound
Nicolas Becker, Jean-Michel Levy
Mix
Martin Steyer - Studio Label Public
Original Music
Christian Steyer, Nicolas Becker
Production Manager
Tassilo Aschauer
Post-Production
Sylvain Foucher, Maggie Heins

Produced by
Gilles-Marie Tiné and Thomas Kufus
A Production of
ARCAPIX and zero film
in coproduction with
RBB – Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

with the participation of
Centre National de la Cinématographie, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
Deutsch-Französisches Filmabkommen der FAA, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM)
Bundesbeauftrage fur Kultur und Medien
(BKM) et de TELEPOOL.

Developed with the help of
MEDIA program of the European Union

...

Interviews with Professor Leibovitz, in two parts

On science and values
“It is man’s will that makes him Man”. This phrase is the key to the thoughts of one of the most provocative thinkers of the end of this century, and the one that sets the tone for these discussions. Using vocabulary that can be understood by everyone, the philosopher opens himself up with a critical reflexion about what makes Man : his will power, his freedom, what he chooses, the tasks he sets himself, and how by “Triumphing over Oneself”, he goes above the others of this world.

On State and laws
“The honest man should know that he should never respect the law too closely”. Professor Y. Leibovitz, spiritual leader of the Israeli soldiers who refuse to carry out their military national service in the Occupied Territories, who has always been very attached to the notion of divine law, develops, a  provocative position vis-à-vis the state in general, and power in particular. Following the traditions of the Prophetes, his caustic tone makes us think about our responsibilities as human beings and citizens.

ABOUT THE FILM

Yeshayahu Leibovitz - An uncompromising man for almost a century

Y. Leibovitz was born in Riga, Lettonia in 1903. He grew up in a rich, orthodox, Zionist, Jewish family. Educated by tutors from an early age, he spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Russian and French. A childhood we can no longer imagine, surrounded by open, profound and refined culture.

In 1919, when he was 16, a civil war opposed Red and White Russians. He emigrated, as did many of his contemporaries, to the young Weimar Republic where the intense intellectual and artistic life seemed highly attractive.

He studied bio-chemistry at the University of Berlin, where no less than five of his Professors were Nobel prize winners. This was also where met his future wife, Greta, who was studying mathematics.

In 1928, he fulfilled a dream and left for Palestine. But he only stayed there for a short period, returning to Berlin to continue his medical studies. He was then obliged to finish these in Switzerland, when the Nazis came to power. Never, he points out, was he subjected to antisemitic discrimination, neither at university, nor in the street.

It was in 1934, that he finally settled in Palestine with his wife Greta. He immediately began teaching neuro-physiology and headed the biochemical department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In 1948, he took up arms to participate in the creation of the State of Israel, or what he referred to as a “framework of national independence for the Jewish people”. But even at that early stage, he called for the separation of religion and the State, in order to save religious values from the clutches of the politicians. A profoundly religious man, he always supported his non-religious compatriots, who were appalled by attitude of the orthodox Jews.

As soon as the 1967 war was over, he denounced the occupation of Arab territories, which he saw as the introduction of a system for the repression of one people by another. Could the children of Israel be sliding dangerously towards becoming “Jewish-Nazis”?

This sombre, pessimistic and imprecatory man belonged to no particular political movement: “The moral progress of Man does not exist and History is merely the chronicle of man’s crimes, follies, and misfortunes”, and he adds, “if you cannot bear this terrible world, then you should commit suicide…”

Since life’s only meaning is in individual acts: “The most noble part of History, is man’s struggle against crimes, follies and misfortunes. A constant and eternal struggle, with no finality.”

In the 1970’s, he was offered a chair in Philosophy at the Hebrew University.

People came to hear him speak, to talk to him: “Hundreds of people, from all walks in life come to see me, write to me or telephone me. I now realise just to what extent I have become “the voice” of the voiceless, those who either don’t know how, don’t dare, or who cannot express their thoughts and their feelings. They are very happy for me to help them to define these thoughts and feelings. That I know, but I don’t think that anyone has changed their opinions for all of that.”

Yeshayahu Leibovitz welcomes all to his modest home in Jerusalem, at any time of the day or night, all those who want to talk to him: a confused soldier, with problems of conscience, a religious person with doubts about his belief, a person with a drug problem… He also welcomes intellectuals of all outlooks and all nationalities.

His words are clear. He is a powerful speaker, tirelessly giving seminars and conferences, taking part in debates and also tirelessly denouncing. His anger is his strength.

At the time of the invasion of Lebanon, in 1982, during a conference where he was alone on stage, he said: “I ask every honest person here to stand up and declare with me, in a loud and clear voice, that he is a traitor. That he betrays the values that are revered today in this country. I call for an uprising, for a revolt.”

Yeshayahu Leibovitz is never alone. His wife, Greta, supports him in the background. She accompanies him everywhere, she knows all his speeches, and corrects his mistakes.

“The most important thing in a man’s life, is his wife”, he says.

In 1993, his nomination for the Israel Prize, a high distinction, caused general uproar. Yeshayahu Leibovitz refused the prize.

He died in August 1994.

For 15 years, Professor Leibovitz was responsible for the editing and development of the Hebrew Encyclopaedia for which he wrote a number of articles.

Besides a considerable number of scientific works, he has also published several collections of articles, essays and public speeches.

His work includes :

• Faith, history and values
• The faith of Maïmonide
• Conversations about science and its values
• Evolution and genetics
• Body and soul; the psycho-physical question
• Judaism, the Jewish people and the State of Israel

«

The film preserves an oratorical art, made of imprecations, brisures, silences and repetitions, peculiar to the subtle and grandiloquent prophets the Jewish people has always had. (...) The cathodic dimension is never lost, Leibowitz is set face to face with previous shootings, through a video - tape recorder. This device attempts to shake up a thought system, as well as tracking it. Not fooled but fascinated, this document exasperates and delights.
Télérama

Original because despite of the strong personality of his interlocutor, the director succeed in keeping a loyal distance which doesn't deprive the spectator of his freedom of perception. In front of Eyal Sivan's camera, Yeshahyaou Leibowitz casts many roles : the scientific philosopher delivers the argued fruits of his thoughts and knowledge, the citizen fires against the established order, the interviewed returns the questions to the interviewer and comments it. The whole thing is to be heard and watch with delight.
Différences

Whether you side with Leibowitz' thoughts or feel a fierce hatred towards him, this film instructs and shakes you up. Rare qualities in this day and age.
Journal des lettres et de l'audiovisuel

» 

Télécharger la revue de presse complète au format PDF dans médias à télécharger

...

© Les films d'ici [FR] | Images et Compagnies [FR] | Amythos Films [ISR] | FR3 [FR]

ITGABER

2 X 85 minutes | video | Colour | 4:3 |Stereo | 1993
Location : Israel
OV : Hebrew
Sub-titles : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German

 Author
Eyal Sivan

Director of Photography
Rony Katzenelson
Sound
Amir Buverman
Editing
Eyal Sivan & Charlotte Tourres
Producer
Ruben Korenfeld

...

In Israel, during spring, four fundamental celebrations take place one after the other:

– Passover, a celebration of freedom, marking la sortie the exodus of Hebrew slaves from Egypt.

– The “Holocaust Remembrance Day”, in memory of the genocide's Jewish victims.

– The “Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day”.

– "Independence Day”, a national holiday.

Though Israel has been under the media spotlight since its creation, it is still a mystery to many observers. Its survival raises moral problems for some, and malicious speculation in others. But it is precisely on account this survival issue that the identity and determination of the population were forgotten.

Izkor is a portrait of the Israeli society that has never been shown, thirty days in the life of a state that lives to the rhythms of its memory.

Thirty days in springtime : celebrations, rituals, tributes, ceremonies… During this period, the whole country seems to be devoted to worshipping the past.

First, there's Passover : the celebration of freedom gained by Hebrews after being slaves for the Pharaohs . Then festivities make place for mourning. Yom Ha’shoa and Yom Ha’zikaron : In towns and cities all over the country, Israelis pay respects to the martyrs and heroes of the Holocaust, and a week later, to Israeli soldiers who died for their country. Independence Day is the peak of this violent succession of emotions, during this long period of coming together of the memories, followed and orchestrated vigorously by all official institutions.

celebrations, rituals, tributes, ceremonies, discourses... Every year, a powerful machine for the perpetuation of memory goes over Israeli society like a steamroller.

Gathered from all around the world, Israelis are united today around an “official” collective memory that goes beyond the different feelings that are represented. This “collective memory” led to a national formation in Israel, to a territorial destiny,  capable of gaining unanimous support.

How has this collective memory developed? What are the symbols that contribute to its strength and to what purpose is it being used? The movie offers visual, human and pragmatic answers to these questions. From kindergarten to the army, we follow Israelis as they grow up, in order to better understand how every citizen is imbued with this “official memory”.

Izkor is a documentary, a visual representation of this psychological phenomenon taken across the entire country. A succession of real time events, of places and of people, that together reveal the intricacies of what can be called “dictatorship of the memory”.

In Israel, “Never again” is not just a slogan, it's a “mantra”. It is an atmosphere, an ever present cloud, a widespread fear, touching every aspect of daily life, reason, opinions, creativity and choices people make for the future.

The author of the film is an Israeli. By going to rediscover the myths and symbols that have contributed to the making of his own identity, as well as that of every Israeli, he is bringing into play his own personal experience. Through a meticulous observation of the educational system, from kindergarten to the army, we discover how history is transformed into memory, how it sets an atmosphere et influences Israelis' behavior and lifestyles.

Can a people keep walking forward with the rest of the world, all the while repeating endlessly:"Our Future is past us”?

«

Izkor is an hypercritical vision of the educational system of Israel. It is illustrated by the thoughts of professor Leibovitz who points out an extensive use of the memory of the past in order to justify the present actions.
Jewish Press Agency

It is not difficult to understand why Sivan's film has offended some people. Certain memories have attained the status of sacred cows and any viewpoint not totally reverential to them may be considered taboo. Sivan implies no disrespect to either the memories or the events they preserve, but is questioning the methods used in ensuring them for the future. A sacred cow not open to questioning must be considered suspect by an alert mind.
The Jerusalem Post

These two hours won't leave anyone unharmed.
L'Express

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

AWARDS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• PROCIREP PRIZE, Jury's Special Mention
    FIPA, 1991
• INVESTIGATION PRIZE, Biennale Européenne du Documentaire
    Marseille, 1991
• GOLD LENSE
    Tel-Aviv, 1991

© Ima Production [FR] | Reha Film [FR] | Adam [ISR] | FR3 [FR] | ZDF [ALL]

IZKOR

97 minutes | 16 mm | Colour | 4:3 | Stereo | 1991
Location : Israel
OV : Hebrew
Sub-titles : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Arabic

Author
Eyal Sivan

Director of Photography
Rony Katzenelson
Sound
Rémy Attal
Editing
Jacques Cometz & Sylvie Pontoizeau
Producer
Ruben Korenfeld

...

Yussef committed a suicide attack in 2001. Ashraf was killed by the Israeli army in 2002. Alla led a group of resistance fighters to his death in 2003. The director, who documented them as promising child actors in a theatre group he founded with his mother Arna, returns to Jenin Refugee Camp in April 2002, to see what happened to the children he knew and loved….

Juliano Mer Khamis is the son of Arna Mer, a Jewish woman, and Saliba Khamis, a Palestinian man. Today, Juliano is one of Israel/Palestine’s leading actors. During the first Intifada, his mother Arna established an alternative educational program in Jenin Refugee Camp to compensate for the virtual collapse of the formal one due to the Israeli occupation. Among its activities, was the ‘Stone Theatre’ – a performance workshop that Juliano directed. Eight years after Arna’s death, and  five years after the theatre project ended, Juliano returns to the Camp to discover the tragic story of “Arna’s children.”

«

A must-see documentary. Sure to spark controversy for its straightforward presentation of the Palestinian struggle, Arna's Children limns a devastating group portrait of the legacy of occupation.
Variety

Arna's Children offers a rare and poignant window into the lives and deaths of a lost generation of Palestinians.
The Washington Post

The film can be summed up in five words: a punch in the guts.
Israel Channel 2

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

AWARDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY, Tribeca Film Festival
USA

• FIPRESCI, BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY, Hot Docs Film festival
Canada

• BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY, One World film festival
Czech Republic

• THE DUTCH ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
Holland, 2004

© Trabelsi productions [ISR] | Pieter van Huystee Film [HOLL] | IKON Television [HOLL]

ARNA'S CHILDREN

84 minutes | Video | 16:9 | Stereo | 2005
Location : Jenin, Palestine
OV : Arabic, Hebrew, English
Sub-titles : French

Author
Juliano Mer Khamis

Directors
Juliano Mer Khamis et Danniel Danniel

www.trabelsiproductions.com

Almost 40 years after the war in Algeria ended, in a workers’ garden in Tourcoing, a city in the North of France, French and Algerian men cultivate their piece of land. These men were the conscripts, National Liberation Front militants or “harkis” in a colonial war led by the French Republic.

This garden holds a place for memory of many aspects, where men who could have met at war or in the factory, get together. It is cultivating a vegetable garden, a universal activity above all, that brings them together.

Sharing from a distance a common history, considering each other with indifference or even hostility, for cultural, social or political reasons, they work side by side on the same patch of land.

«

It's the whole story, complex and painful, of the relationship between two inextricably linked countries, that emerges from these testimonies collected by Leïla Habchi and Benoît Prin.
Le Monde

The documentary brings subtly to light the bruised memory and the sometimes obliterated future.
Télérama

» 

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FESTIVALS SELECTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• États généraux du documentaire de Lussas, 2003

© Momento l Vidéorème l Leitmotiv Production l C.R.R.A.V. l C9 Télévision

THE GARDENERS OF THE RUE DES MARTYRS
81 minutes | Video | Colour | 16:9 | 2003
Location : France
 OV : French & Arabic
Sub-titles : French, English

To the memory of 
Omar HABCHI
A film by 
Leïla HABCHI et Benoît PRIN

With the kind participation of
Abdallah, Abderhaman, Ali, Allal, Amar, Ahmed and wife, Bachir, Chérif and wife, Edmond, Hammou, Jean, Lakhdar, Michel, Mohamed, Nordine, Raymond, Roger. As well as all of the gardeners of the rue des martyrs in Tourcoing.

A film directed and produced by
Leïla HABCHI et Benoît PRIN
assisted by
Linda CHORAB
Cinematography
Linda CHORAB
Leïla HABCHI
Sound
Benoît PRIN
Editors
Ruben KORENFELD
Corinne BACHY
Benoît PRIN
Assistant Editor
Eulalie KORENFELD
Sound Editor
Coline BEUVELET
On line Editing & Grading
Eric SALLERON
Translations
Leïla HABCHI
Linda CHORAB
Benoît PRIN
Executive Producer
Armelle LABORIE
Associate Producer
Eyal SIVAN
Associate Producers
Ourida FAHRI
Jérôme AMIMER
Christian LAMARCHE
François TAVERNIEZ
 

A coproduction of
Momento !
Vidéorème
Leitmotiv Production
CRRAV
C9 Télévision

Music
Bachir improvising "à la gesbah"
"Ya Malik Elmoulouk" by El Hadj M'Hamed ELANKA © Club du disque arabe

Technical Services
CRRAV
Vidéorème (Roubaix)
Collège de l'Europe (Tourcoing)
C9 Télévision (Lille)
GSARA (Bruxelles)
Sylicone (Paris)
Avidia (Paris)
 

With the help of
Centre national de la Cinématographie
La Région Nord-Pas de Calais
La Région Limousin, de l'Etat - Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles du Limousin,
Le Fond d'Action Sociale (F.A.S.)
La ville de Tourcoing
La Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations
La ville de Roubaix
La D.R.A.C. Nord – Pas de Calais
Le G.S.A.R.A. Bruxelles
Le collège de l'Europe de Tourcoing
C9 Télévision

Developed with the help of
MEDIA Programme of the European Community
 

Acknowledgments
Chabha ANSEUR, Zoubeïda ATHAMNIA, Samia AYEB, Luc BAELE, Abdelkader BENTOUIL, Moussa BOUBZIZ, Horia CHEUFRI, Patrice DEBOOSERE, Olivier DEROUSSEAU, Fadma EL BAZ, Jamal EZ ZOUAINE, Anne-Marie FAUX, Jean-René GENTY, Sonia GAUMONT, KERMIT, Mounir LAOUANI, Robert NAVARO, Samy NYUNUYANTU, Omar TARY.

...

Aqabat-Jaber is one of the sixty Palestinian refugee camps built in the Middle East by the UN at the beginning of the 1950s. Filmed in 1987, a few months before the Intifada, this film tells the story of a disinherited generation brought up in the nostalgia of places they never knew and which no longer exist. The story of a temporary solution that became a permanent way of life.

Aqabat-Jaber is one of the sixty Palestinian refugee camps built in the Middle East by the UN at the beginning of the 1950s. It is the biggest camp in the Middle East situated some 3 kilometres south of Jericho. The majority of its 65,000 inhabitants came from those villages in central Palestine that were destroyed in 1948. The 1967 war pushed 95% of that population across the banks of the river Jordan. The traces of war and the effects of erosion by the desert accentuate the contrasts between the abandoned refugees and the huts that they still occupy, and make Aqabat-Jaber look like a ghost town. Filmed in 1987, a few months before the Intifada, this film tells the story of a disinherited generation brought up in the nostalgia of places they never knew and which no longer exist. The story of a temporary solution that became a permanent way of life. This film is about a ghost town, fulfilled by nostalgia and memories.

«

This film goes beyond politics. It is about country people confined for the last 38 years in refugee camps, about the humiliation of being severed from their land, from their orchards, their villages. Nothing happens in the film because nothing happens in their lives. Endlessly waiting, some still cling to the hope of returning one day to their land. It is not a silent film, it cries out in its simplicity, wrenching the heart. These are human beings ?? So, what...?!
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Some refugees welcome the chance to introduce themselves, air their grievances and bemoan their fates ; other scorn the filmmakers. Sivan, ever sympathetic to their conditions, extracts detailed life stories from the displaced persons as he pans the daily life at the camps.
Variety

Aqabat-Jaber offers a poetic vision of homelessness a permanent state of mind.  Poignancy merges with absurdity, turning the makeshift life into a kind of grotesque purgatory, a sad dreamland.
The Boston Phoenix

Aqabat-jaber is a definite highlight. It's a sad and troubling look at a decrepit West Bank refugee camp where Palestinians, many displaced landowners living in exile, talk about their lives and their hopes of regaining their land. For many of these refugees, some there since 1948, the land is a symbol of lost culture and lost self-respect.
Boston Herald

Aqabat-Jaber  by Eyal Sivan, winner of cinéma du réel 1987, is a very powerful testimony on uprooted people of all origins.
Libération

There is, in Eyal Sivan's film, the acute awareness of the camera's gaze in everyone that is filmed.
Cahiers du Cinéma

A movie beyond the politics, since here scorned people are dignified and proud.
Positif

» 

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© Dune Vision [FR] 1987 – © momento production [FR] 1994

AQABAT-JABER, PASSING THROUGH

86 minutes | 16 mm | colour | 4:3 | Stereo | 1987
Location : Palestine
OV : Arabic
Sub-titles : English, French, Spanish

A film by
Eyal Sivan

Production
Dune Vision
Executive Producer
Thibaut de Corday
Based on the original idea of
Eyal Sivan and Noa Gedy
Camera
Nurith Aviv
Assisted by 
Claire Bailly du Bois
2nd camera
Raymond Grosjean
Sound
Rémy Atta
Assisted by
Philippe Garnier
Assistant Director / interpreter
Mohamed Diab
2nd Assistant
Noa Gedy.
Production Coordinator
Philippa Benson
Production Manager
Thibaut de Corday
Stills
Eric Bouvet / Gamma
Editor
Ruth Schell
Sound Editor
Véronique Lange
Mix
Patrick Ghislain
Translations
Sylvana Kattar

...

Can peace between Israel and Palestine be possible without the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland which has now become Israel ? Does the return - either physical or symbolic - of people that suffered an injustice in 1948 when the state of Israel was created have to take place.

Having made "Aqabat Jaber, passing through" just before the Intifada, Eyal Sivan returns to a refugee camp the day after the evacuation of the region by the Israeli army. A few kilometres from Jericho and built 50 years ago, Aqabat-Jaber is a refugee camp that is under Palestinian control today. Its 3,000 inhabitants have not however seen their status change. According to the peace treaty, they are still refugees and cannot go back to the villages from which their parents fled. The return home of the refugees, right at the heart of the Israelo-Palestine conflict, will determine the future of the Middle East.

This film, which hopes to be analogical, tells the story of the Palestinian refugees, like all refugees, deported populations, displaced persons, that are the centre of the great conflicts of the 20th century.

«

A strong testimony about the uprooted from everywhere (...) A beautifull sobriety cleared out from the usual conventional speach.
Libération

Eyal Sivan continues his relentless and disturbing work, from film to film, investigating thre true nature of his native country. Any study of memory, of history, of values, of the myths of Israel confronted with reality, depends, of course, and perhaps above all, for Eyal Sivan on getting to know your opponent. In this case, the enemy / partner over the last 50 years, the palestinian people.
Le Nouvel Observateur

From this honest and authentic film, that hauls out poetry from poerty the depths of despair, we understand that the Prophet stopped in Aqabat Jaber, this metaphor of the palestinian deadlock.
Télérama

» 

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...

© momento production [FR] | Amythos [ISR] | la Sept ARTE [FR]

AQABAT-JABER, PEACE WITH NO RETURN?

61 minutes | 16 mm | color | 4:3 | 1995
Location : Palestine
OV : Arabic
Sub-titles : French, English, Spanish

A film by
Eyal Sivan

Producer
Armelle Laborie
Cinematographer
Nurith Aviv
Sound
Rémy Attal
Editor
Sylvie Pontoizeau

...

Twenty-four hours in the life of a manic-depressive, going through a manic phase.

This movie, made at the request of the psychiatrist Christian Gay (St. Anne's Hospital), was originally intended for people affected by manic-depressive illness, also called bipolar disorder. While many documentaries and fiction films have been devoted to the depressive phase, this movie tackles the mania side (excitement phase). Jackie Berroyer plays a patient out of treatment, facing an excitement period where the disorganization of his mental faculties echos in his social life.



...

AWARDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• GRAND PRIX DE LA COMMUNICATION MÉDICALE, Festival de la communication médicale
    Deauville, 2001
• GRAND PRIX DU FILM MÉDICAL
    Paris, 2001

© momento production

AU SOMMET DE LA DESCENTE
33 minutes | Video | Colour | 4:3 | stereo | 2001
OV : French

With
Jackie Berroyer, Sophie-Hélène Château, Momo Azzouz, Abdel Belkhodja,
Mathias Bahuon, Jérémie Korenfeld, Camille Gay, Nathalie Dival, Julia Gay, Michel Boudin,
Gérard Salaberry, Marie-Odile Fanet, Nathalie Ganier-Raymond, Jean Gasnault,
Dr Christian Gay

A film by
Eyal Sivan

Production
Armelle Laborie
Script
Eyal Sivan and Armelle Laborie
with the collaboration of
Dr Christian Gay
Camera
Denis Larrue
Sound
Nathalie Vidal
Script girl
Nadia Chettab
Electrician-machine operator
Kamel Belaïd
Art and accessories
Anne-Marie Faux
Editor
Audrey Maurion
Sound editor
Coline Beuvelet
Mix
George Laffitte

...

Burundi, 21st October 1993: the democratically elected President N’Dadaye is assassinated by a group of Tutsi officers. 
Another round of reprisals and counter-attacks begins under pressure from the militia and extremist parties who encourage the racial hostilities and fan the flames of terror. There is one pogrom after another, with tens of thousands of people becoming refugees in their own country.

...

FESTIVALS SELECTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
• Rencontres Cinématographiques de Seine St Denis, Résistance, 1998
• International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 1996

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]  

BURUNDI, UNDER TERROR 

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Burundi
OV : French
Sub-titles : French, English

A film directed and produced by 
Eyal SIVAN

Auteurs
Eyal Sivan & Alexis Cordesse
Photographe
Alexis Cordesse
Editor
Audrey Maurion

...

In April 1992, war broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina. With help from the Yugoslavian army, the Bosniac-Serb militia seized two thirds of the territory, carrying out a campaign of terror against the Muslims and the Croats. This film was made in Foca, five years after the town was taken over by the Serb nationalists. The soundtrack is made up of interviews with the local population and of excerpts from the charges brought against the eight members of the local militia. There are no Muslims or Croats left in Foca at all, and the town is called Srebjne.

...

...

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]

FOCA, ABSOLUT SERBIA  

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Bosnia
OV : Serbo-Croatian, French or English
Sub-titles : French, English

A film directed by
Alexis Cordesse

Auteurs
Eyal Sivan
Alexis Cordesse
Photographe
Alexis Cordesse
Sound
Nicolas Becker
Editor
Maya Cypel

...

More than 10,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails today. They are called Security Prisoners.
For most Israelis they are assassins and criminals. For most Palestinians they are heroes and freedom fighters.

Hot House is a documentary-feature that explores the emergence of Palestinian national leadership in Israeli prisons in light of the elections to the Palestinian Parliament. The film provides a unique opportunity to observe events of historic proportions at their nascent. It exposes the cycle of violence, the evolution of a conflict characterized by vast asymmetry in balance of power and the ethics of war.

...

AWARDS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
• SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, Jury's Special Prize
    World Cinema-Documentary, 2007

FESTIVALS SELECTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
• Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, London, 2007
• 3rd Santa Barbara Human Rights Film Festival, 2008
• HotDocs, Canada, 2007
•  Rotterdam, Hollande, 2007
•  Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, New York, 2007
•  Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, Chicago, 2007

© ALMA FILMS [ISR] TALISMA PRODUCTIONS [ISR] MEIMAD BARKAI PRODUCTIONS [ISR] CINEQUEST FILMS [CAN] ARTE [FR]

HOT HOUSE
90 minutes | Video | Colour | 16:9 | Stereo | 2006
Location : Israel, Palestine
OV : Arabic, Hebrew
Sub-titles : French, English

Author
Shimon Dotan

Production
Arik Berbstein
Jonathan Aroch
Dikla Barkal
Shimon Dotan
Image
Shai Goldman
Hanna Abu-Sana
Editor
Ayala Bengad
Music
Ron Klein

www.alma-films.com

During the Gulf war, 10 km from Tel-Aviv as bombs are dropping on the city, a Luna park called Israland is being built.
The film tells the story of a few of the characters taking part in the construction of the site : an Israeli mechanical digger driver, two Palestinian workmen, a German architect and sculptor and a Jewish real estate developer from Georgia. Their only common denominator is their work : the building of the Luna park where hatred is omnipresent.

Israland is the provisional name of a huge project south of Tel-Aviv in Israel. The film of the same name was shot on the project construction site during the Gulf War.

Israland is a mosaic of several opposing characters. Their only point in common is their workplace – the construction site.

Joseph, the night watchman sits on a pile of sand, listens and comments the news on the radio.

"There are more accidents than wars... We are not afraid..."

Avi, an Israeli machine operator, speaks of war and of hatred, he doesn't have any contact with the Arabs on the construction site.

"I realized we had to do our best for our country, try to build it ourselves, without the Arabs. They mustn't do anything. They should stay at home."

Abou Khadit and Abou Ramzi, Palestinian workmen, talk about their schedules and the hatred of Israelis.

"...Often after a day on the job site, I go back to find my home full of tear gas..."

"...The Jewish workman can do nothing for me since we're in the same boat, he too must work for a living, and so it's not his place to defend my rights."

Guershom, the architect, a German who converted to Judaism and became Israeli, designs sculptures and analyzes the situation as if he was not really a part of reality.

"This entire country is a vast amusement park, American style. As long as we continue to mess about, to want to emulate America, as long as we make no effort to be a part of the Middle East and completely fit in, it will be a catastrophe."

Khamis, the Palestinian worker, is busy constructing metal sculptures in the shape of flowers.

"...This rose is firmly rooted in the earth, deeper than the others. And another thing : Every time a petal is torn loose, others appear, more solid than its predecessors. One day the wind will no longer break the petals and our rose  will come to the sunlight like all the other flowers planted in this place..."

And Abraham the promotor, a carefree man, a Georgian multi-millionaire, who dreamed this project. An amusement Park, in the American style, called Israland.

"We're building a paradise on earth here, and believe me, I'll go to heaven for building this paradise...We put here everything that's supposed to be in heaven. Flowers, gardens, landscapes, that's paradise. We're doing this, we're building it in this world already. In the American style... maybe not... I would love people to say “In Israeli style”, Israel, it is not worse than America."

Le film Israland is a surreal metaphor on Israel or "Israel-Land", an enclave country; western enclave in the heart of the Middle East.

Le film is over, the construction is too. It opened after the war, under the name SUPERLAND.

«

An uncompromising and surrealistic metaphor.
Le Monde

Poem of real sources, Israland is a work of deep humanity.
L'Humanité Dimanche

A pleasant movie which shows with humour and lightness the dramatic and explosive reality of Israel. A philosophical and surrealist tale.
Télérama

» 

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...

© IMA Productions [FR] l FR3 [FR] l État d’Urgence Production [FR]

ISRALAND

58 minutes | Video | Colour | 4:3 | Stereo | 1991
Israel, Palestine
OV : Hebrew & Arabic
Sub-titles : French, Spanish

A film by
Eyal Sivan

With the participation of
Gershom von Chwarz, Israeli machine operator
Avi Metodi, Israeli machine operator
Abou Khadit, Palestinian workman
Joseph, night watchman
Khamis, Palestinian workman

Producer
Edgar Tenembaum
Author
Eyal Sivan
Cinematographer
Emmanuel Kadosh
Sound
Elie Taragan
Editor
Sylvie Pontoizeau

...

The genocide in Rwanda (Itsembatsemba) took place amongst general indifference. On the 6th April 1994, a fury of purification swept the country. Within one hundred days, soldiers and militiamen (Interhamwe) massacred at least 700,000 Tutsis. These images were taken two years after the genocide, in April 1996. The sound track comes from Radio Télévision Mille Collines (Thousand Hills Free Broadcasting) - RTLM - and dates from April to June 1994. RTLM began to transmit in 1991 with the help of the regime and played a key role in the unleashing and the coordination of the killing.

«

Diverting the tone and format of the TV report, Eyal Sivan is pursuing his reflection on the representation of genocide and the political use of memory.
Connaissance des Arts

» 

Download the full press kit in a PDF format at download media

AWARDS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 •  GOLDEN GATE AWARD
     San Fransisco International Film Festival, 1997

FESTIVALS SELECTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
•  Documenta XI, Cassel, 2002
•  Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, 2003
•  International Human Rights Film Festival, Ramallah-Tel-Aviv, 2000
•  Amnesty International Film Festival, Amsterdam, 1998
•  Rencontres Cinématographiques de Seine St Denis, Résistance, 1998
•  Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, 1997
•  Festival Cinéma du Réel, Paris, 1997
•  International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 1996

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]  

ITSEMBATSEMBA, RWANDA A GENOCIDE LATER

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Rwanda
OV : Kinyarwanda
Sub-titles : French, English 

A film directed and produced by 
Eyal SIVAN

Assisted by 
Armelle LABORIE
Images and Sound 
Alexis CORDESSE
Photo Prints
Carole DELRIEU
Editor
Michèle COURBOU
Sound Editor and Mix 
Eric LONNEUR
Sound Effects
Nicolas BECKER
Translations
Charles RUBAGUMYA
Written texts
Rony BRAUMAN
Sub-titles
Catherine NEUVE-EGLISE
Post-Production
Son pour Son
Etat d’Urgence Productions
Animation Stands
Ercidan
Laboratories
Mise au Point
Centrimage
Acknowledgments
Benjamin Bleton - Amit Breuer - Annette Gerlach - Céline Laborie
Madeleine Moukamabano - Christophe Picard - Jérôme Wirth Sam Productions
Médecins Sans Frontières - Reporters Sans Frontières - TheoPresse

...

 «

A violence and a tension indicate us our presence in Jerusalem.
Nouvel Observateur

An ironical metaphore about a town overcome with a mad destiny.
Le Monde

The harshness of Eyal Sivan' eyes will give the shivers to more than one. His portrait of love and hatred, between attraction and repulsion, is worth a watch, if only because he takes the liberty of raising against the spiritually correct cliché of "holy city".
Tribune Juive

» 

Download full press kit in PDF format at download media

...

© La Sept ARTE [FR] l momento! l AMYTHOS [FR]

JERUSALEM(S), BORDERLINE SYNDROME

65 minutes | 16 mm | Colour | 4:3 | Stereo | 1994
OV : Hebrew & Arabic
Sub-titles : French, English, Spanish

A FILM WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Eyal SIVAN

WITH
Dan DULBERGER
Amalia SAND
AND
Izak KONFINO
Shay LAUFER

IMAGE
Nurith AVIV
SOUND
Rémy ATTAL
EDITOR
Sylvie PONTOIZEAU
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Karin SIVAN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Eyal SIVAN
ASSISTED BY
Armelle LABORIE
CAMERA ASSISTANT
Sophie CADET
GAFFER
Avi AVNAEEM
ASSISTED BY
Yuval GALRON
GRIP
Noam IZENBERG
ASSISTED BY
Ronen NEAMAN
2nd SOUND
Amir BUVERMAN
ART DIRECTOR
Judie LOMS
ASSISTED BY
Tom AZEN
MAKE UP
Déborah SHILO
SET PRODUCTION
Anat ASSULIN
Avi GALANTY
COORDINATION
Dany (Nokio) VERETÉ
Georges KHLEIFI
EDITING ASSISTANTS
Sylvie ADNIN
Jeanne MOUTARD
TRAINY
Maya CYPEL
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Amit BREUER
PRODUCTION CONSULTANT
Michel KHLEIFI
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Alice BOUCHER

AKNOWLEDGMENTS
Anwar ABU EISHEH - Dr Pierrette ANTONA - Luc BÉRANGER - Ruth BNIEL - Tomas ORLOWSKI - Elias SANBAR - Billy SEGAL - Philippe VERRIÈRE - Centre de Santé Mentale KFAR SHAUL - Salles Mondial Renaissance - Haute Autorité pour les Antiquités.

TEXTS
THE BIBLE
« AL-QUDS » by FAYROUZ
POEM BY Moudafar AL-NAWAB

ARCHIVES
IBA Israeli Television
AL-QUDS Television Production
OLP Culture Department

WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA CINÉMATOGRAPHIE
STOCK
KODAK
BASF

LABORATOTY
RANK FILM LABORATORIES
RENT MATERIAL
PRAXIMAGE
ON AIR
POST-PRODUCTION
SON POUR SON

...

After ten years of russian occupation and three years of fighting against the pro-communist regime of Najibullah, in April 1992, Kabul fell into the hands of the Mujahadins.
The Afghan capital, perviously spared, then became the scene of bloody fighting between rival groups of militia.
The images used to make this film were taken in january and february 1995, when the capital was under siege.

...

...

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]

KABOUL, A WEARY WAR

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Kaboul
OV : music
Sub-titles : French, English

A film directed by
Alexis Cordesse

Authors
Eyal Sivan
Alexis Cordesse
Image
Alexis Cordesse
Sound Engineers
Nicolas Becker
Editor
Maya Cypel

...

Itsembatsemba, Rwanda One Genocide Later
The genocide in Rwanda (Itsembatsemba) took place amongst general indifference. On the 6th April 1994, a fury of purification swept the country. Within one hundred days, soldiers and militiamen (Interhamwe) massacred at least 700,000 Tutsis. These images were taken two years after the genocide, in April 1996. The sound track comes from Radio Télévision Mille Collines (Thousand Hills Free Broadcasting) - RTLM - and dates from April to June 1994. RTLM began to transmit in 1991 with the help of the regime and played a key role in the unleashing and the co-ordination of the killing.

Burundi, Under Terror
Burundi, 21st October 1993: the democratically elected President N’Dadaye is assassinated by a group of Tutsi officers. Another round of reprisals and counter-attacks begins under pressure from the militia and extremist parties who encourage the racial hostilities and fan the flames of terror. There is one pogrom after another, with tens of thousands of people becoming refugees in their own country. 

Foca, Absolut Serbia
In April 1992, war broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina. With help from the Yugoslavian army, the Bosnian-Serb militia seized two thirds of the territory, carrying out a campaign of terror against the Muslims and the Croats. This film was made in Foca, five years after the town was taken over by the Serb nationalists. The soundtrack is made up of interviews with the local population and of excerpts from the charges brought against the eight members of the local militia. There are no Muslims or Croats left in Foca at all, and the town is called Srebjne.

Kaboul, A Weary War
After ten years of russian occupation and three years of fighting against the pro-communist regime of Najibullah, in April 1992, Kabul fell into the hands of the Mujahadins. The Afghan capital, perviously spared, then became the scene of bloody fighting between rival groups of militia. The images used to make this film were taken in january and february 1995, when the capital was under siege.

«

On Itsembatsemba, Rwanda One Genocide Later:
Diverting the tone and format of the TV report, Eyal Sivan is pursuing his reflection on the representation of genocide and the political use of memory.
Connaissance des Arts

» 

Download the full press kit in PDF format at download media

AWARDS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• GOLDEN GATE AWARD
     San Fransisco International Film Festival, 1997
• MENTION SPÉCIALE
     Festival international du film documentaire et court-métrages de Bilbao, 1997

FESTIVALS SELECTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Itsembatsemba, Rwanda One Genocide Later
•  Documenta XI, Cassel, 2002
•  Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, 2003
•  International Human Rights Film Festival, Ramallah-Tel-Aviv, 2000
•  Amnesty International Film Festival, Amsterdam, 1998
•  Rencontres Cinématographiques de Seine St Denis, Résistance, 1998
•  Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, 1997
•  Festival Cinéma du Réel, Paris, 1997
•  International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 1996 

     Burundi, Under Terror
•  Rencontres Cinématographiques de Seine St Denis, Résistance, 1998
•  International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 1996 

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]  

ITSEMBATSEMBA, RWANDA A GENOCIDE LATER

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Rwanda
OV : Kinyarwanda
Sub-titles : French, English 

A film directed and produced by 
Eyal SIVAN

Assisted by 
Armelle LABORIE
Image and Sound 
Alexis CORDESSE
Photo Prints
Carole DELRIEU
Editor
Michèle COURBOU
Sound Editor & Mix 
Eric LONNEUR
Sound Effects
Nicolas BECKER
Translations
Charles RUBAGUMYA
Written Texts 
Rony BRAUMAN
Sub-titles
Catherine NEUVE-EGLISE
Post-Production
Son pour Son
Etat d’Urgence Productions
Animation
Ercidan
Laboratories 
Mise au Point
Centrimage
Acknowledgments
Benjamin Bleton - Amit Breuer - Annette Gerlach - Céline Laborie
Madeleine Moukamabano - Christophe Picard - Jérôme Wirth Sam Productions
Médecins Sans Frontières - Reporters Sans Frontières - TheoPresse

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]  

BURUNDI, UNDER TERROR 

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Burundi
OV : French
Sub-titles : French, English

A film directed and produced by 
Eyal SIVAN

Authors
Eyal Sivan & Alexis Cordesse
Image
Alexis Cordesse
Editor
Audrey Maurion

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]

FOCA, ABSOLUT SERBIA  

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Bosnia
OV : Serbo-Croatian, French or English
Sub-titles : French, English

A film directed by
Alexis Cordesse

Authors
Eyal Sivan
Alexis Cordesse
Image
Alexis Cordesse
Sound engineers
Nicolas Becker
Editor
Maya Cypel 

© État d'urgence [FR] momento production [FR]

KABOUL, A WEARY WAR

13 minutes | photo | B/W | 4:3 | stereo | 1996
Location : Kaboul
OV : music
Sub-titles : French, English

A film directed by
Alexis Cordesse

Authors
Eyal Sivan
Alexis Cordesse
Image
Alexis Cordesse
Sound Engineers
Nicolas Becker
Editor
Maya Cypel

...

The stories of Albert, Ahmed and Miloud, three members of the expeditionary French army corps who, during Indochina war, deserted their posts in the French army, as to rally to the Vietminh.

They tell us their departure from France and Morocco to the Indochina, the reasons of their difficult choice to leave French army, then their life in the Vietnam hills and the long exile, which followed. Today back to France and Morocco, they finally break the silence that shrouded their lives in mystery.

...

AWARDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• 1st Prize, History Film Festival
     Pessac, 2003
• Grant “ Brouillon d’un rêve ” of the SCAM
• Best Script for a history documentary, Festival de Blois

FESTIVALS SELECTION
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
•  États généraux du documentaire de Lussas, 2003

© momento production [FR]

RALLIÉS

52 minutes | video | colour | 16:9 | stereo | 2002
Location : archives. France, Marocco
OV : French, Arabic
Sub-titles : French, English

Directors 
Adila Bennedjaï-Zou
Joseph Confavreux

With
Albert
Miloud
Ahmed
Pierre-Alban
Colonel Jacques Allaire

And the voice of
Garance Clavel

Editor
Odile Bonis
Image
Hervé Kern
Sound
Olivier Cuinat
Archives Consultant
Patrick Jeudy
Special Effects
David Bouhsira
Colour Grading
Valérie Grenier
Mix
Christophe Brajdic
Assisted by 
Bruno Brochier
Production Manager
Pierre Marchand
Original Music
Gilles Lavanant
Graphics
David Enon
Executive Producers
Armelle Laborie
Eyal Sivan
Production Consultant
Ruben Korenfeld
Archives
Films de propagande vietnamiens
Collections privées
NARA

MUSIC

Quand un soldat
Written by : Francis Lemarque / Performed by : Yves Montand / Editions Métropolitaines
Marie Dominique
Performed by : Laure Diana / Editions Maisonneuve et Larose
Les Africains
Performed by : Bordas / Editions Maisonneuve et Larose
Sidi H’bibi
Performed by : Bellemou / Editions Cléopâtre-Ounassar
Varsovienne
Performed by : Chœurs de l’armée rouge / Editions Mémoire
Varsovienne
Performed by : Pierre Migennes / Editions Chants du Monde
Ashwa
Performed by : Gilles Atlas
Warsovienne
Performed by : Gilles Lavanant
Petit Soldat
Performed by : Gilles Lavanant
Indochine année zéro
Performed by : Gilles Lavanant

Rights Reserved

Acknowledgments 
Nelcya Delannoë
Alain Ruscio
Henri Martin
Pierre-André Boutang
Jacques Doyon
Stéphane Correa et l’association Victarine
Toute l’équipe de Pleine Lune
Marysette Moisset
Maître Serge Binn
Georges Gavelle
Luis et l’équipe de GL Pipa

And
France, Patrick, Marine et Lucas
Toute la famille Essahli
Toute la famille Charlon
Et Jérôme Huguet

With the Participation of
Centre National de la Cinématographie

...

500 Dunam on the Moon is a documentary about the Palestinian village of Ayn Hawd which was captured and depopulated by Israeli forces in the 1948 war and subsequently transformed into a Jewish artist's colony and renamed Ein Hod.
It tells the story of the village's original inhabitants who, after expulsion, settled only 1.5 kilometers away in the outlying hills. Since Israeli law prevents Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes, the refugees of Ayn Hawd established a new village: “Ayn Hawd al-Jadida” (The New Ayn Hawd). Ayn Hawd al-Jadida is an unrecognized village, which means that it receives no services such as electricity, water, or an access road. Relations between the artists and the refugees are complex: unlike most Israelis, the residents of Ein Hod know the Palestinians who lived there before them, since the latter have worked as hired hands for the former. Unlike most Palestinian refugees, the residents of Ayn Hawd al-Jadida know the Israelis who now occupy their homes, the art they produce, and the peculiar ways they try to deal with the fact that their society was created upon the ruins of another.

It echoes the story of indigenous peoples everywhere: oppression, resistance, and the struggle to negotiate the scars of the past with the needs of the present and the hopes for the future. Addressing the universal issues of colonization, landlessness, housing rights, gentrification, and cultural appropriation in the specific context of Israel/Palestine, 500 Dunam on the Moon documents the art of dispossession and the creativity of the dispossessed.

«

Rachel Leah Jones’s documentary 500 Dunam on the Moon unsettles the dominant Israeli narrative about the artists’ colony Ein Hod, founded in the wake of the dispossession of the Palestinian village Ayn Hawd, while giving the term “artists colony” an ironic twist. Within the film, the pictorial setting of the region does not serve a kind of a nostalgia for the exotic, but only highlights a multi-layered history of silence; the much glorified (“hod” of the Hebrew) hybrid architectural style that combines “East” and “West” has been literally built upon the ruins of Palestinian houses. Capturing this process from the perspective of the remaining Palestinian villagers, living on the outskirts of their old home, Jones’s film courageously puts the “present absentees” back, as it were, on the map.
Professor Ella Shohat, NYU

Of the many films in this year’s festival [Human Rights Watch] that deal with conflict in the Middle East, most seem to be sketches toward a movie... The exception is Rachel Leah Jones’ 500 Dunam on the Moon. Jones had the wit to seize on a revelatory topic for her picture and the patience to develop it fully.
The Nation