Drunk and disillusioned Roman, Marcellus Gallio, wins Jesus' robe in a dice game after the crucifixion. Marcellus has never been a man of faith like his slave, Demetrius, but when Demetrius escapes with the robe, Marcellus experiences disturbing visions and feels guilty for his actions. Convinced that destroying the robe will cure him, Marcellus sets out to find Demetrius — and discovers his Christian faith along the way.
An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
Salma Zidane, a widow, lives simply from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank's occupied territory. The Israeli defence minister and his wife move next door, forcing the Secret Service to order the trees' removal for security. The stoic Salma seeks assistance from the Palestinian Authority, Israeli army, and a young attorney, Ziad Daud, who takes the case. In this allegory, does David stand a chance against Goliath?
Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
Documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.
Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.
An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day. A semi-biographic film, in four chapters, about a family spanning from 1948 until recent times. Combined with intimate memories of each member, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained in their land and were labelled "Israeli-Arabs," living as a minority in their own homeland.
Palestine, 1948. After the withdrawal of the British occupiers, tensions rise between Arabs and Jews. Meanwhile, Farha, the smart daughter of the mayor of a small village, unaware of the coming tragedy, dreams of going to study in the big city.
The tape-recorded words “erase it” take on new weight in the context of history and war. When the state of Israel was established in 1948, war broke out and hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated in its aftermath. Israelis know this as the War of Independence. Palestinians call it “Nakba” (the Catastrophe). In the late 1990s, graduate student Teddy Katz conducted research into a large-scale massacre that had allegedly occurred in the village of Tantura in 1948. His work later came under attack and his reputation was ruined, but 140 hours of audio testimonies remain.
On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?
Five broken cameras – and each one has a powerful tale to tell. Embedded in the bullet-ridden remains of digital technology is the story of Emad Burnat, a farmer from the Palestinian village of Bil’in, which famously chose nonviolent resistance when the Israeli army encroached upon its land to make room for Jewish colonists. Emad buys his first camera in 2005 to document the birth of his fourth son, Gibreel. Over the course of the film, he becomes the peaceful archivist of an escalating struggle as olive trees are bulldozed, lives are lost, and a wall is built to segregate burgeoning Israeli settlements.
Santa Claus tries to outrun a gang of knife-wielding youth. It's one of several vignettes of Palestinian life in Israel - in a neighborhood in Nazareth and at Al-Ram checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Most of the stories are droll, some absurd, one is mythic and fanciful; few words are spoken. A man who goes through his mail methodically each morning has a heart attack. His son visits him in the hospital. The son regularly meets a woman at Al-Ram; they sit in a car, hands caressing. Once, she defies Israeli guards at the checkpoint; later, ninja-like, she takes on soldiers at a target range. A red balloon floats free overhead. Neighbors toss garbage over walls. Life goes on until it doesn't.
Mustafa and his wife Salwa come from two Palestinian villages that are only 200 meters apart, but separated by the wall. Their unusual living situation is starting to affect their otherwise happy marriage, but the couple does what they can to make it work. Every night, Mustafa flashes a light from his balcony to wish his children on the other side a goodnight, and they signal him back. One day Mustafa gets a call that every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident. He rushes to the checkpoint where he must agonisingly wait in line only to find out there is a problem with his fingerprints and is denied entry. Desperate, Mustafa resorts to hiring a smuggler to bring him across. His once 200-meter journey becomes a 200-kilometer odyssey joined by other travellers determined to cross.
Mourning her mother’s death and struggling to adjust to her new life in Israel, a young girl bonds with the lonely spirit of a Palestinian child.
An anti-western propaganda film about the influences of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world, as told from a North Korean perspective.
When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the mistreatment of Palestinians, they battle the old guard to create a new movement opposing Israel’s occupation, and recentering Judaism itself.
In 1917 when the British forces are bogged down in front of the Turkish and German lines in Palestine they rely on the Australian light horse regiment to break the deadlock.
After years abroad in Italy, Shadi returns to his native Nazareth. But this is no spectacular homecoming. He's back somewhat begrudgingly to honour his "wajib" (or duty) to hand out invitations to his sister's wedding with his father. The simmering tension between the two — who are often stuck in a car, more often than not in traffic — builds, exposing the sometimes-comic chasms that exist between men who live in different worlds but share an unshakable bond.
In Gaza, 60-year-old fisherman Issa has been secretly in love with Siham, a widow who works at the market. One day, the discovery of an ancient phallic statue of Apollo in his fishing net changes his life. With newfound confidence, he decides to approach Siham but problems arise when authorities become involved with this mysterious and potent treasure.
A Canadian doctor finds her sympathies sorely tested while working in the conflict ravaged Palestinian territories.
Amjad is an Arab-Israeli journalist whose problems with cultural identity drive himself and all around him crazy especially his wife, Bushra.
The story of a young woman who goes to present-day Israel/Palestine determined to find out about her soldier grandfather's involvement in the final years of Palestine under the British mandate.
Follows three young Palestinian students who travel to Tel Aviv in 2008. They will try to establish a new and free Palestinian community for themselves.
Pillar of Fire focuses on the History of Zionism, beginning in 1896, in the wake of Theodor Herzl's revival of the concept of Jewish nationalism and continues to follow the Jewish People in the 20th century, the early stages of Zionism, followed by the waves of Aliyah prior to the founding of Israel, the Revival of the Hebrew language, the Ottoman Empire's rule in over the Land of Israel, the British Mandate, Anti-Semitism in Europe, the rise of Nazism and The Holocaust, the history of the Yishuv, the Jewish struggle for independence, and ends in 1948, with the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
East Side follows Momi, an ex-Secret Service agent-turned-fixer who plays by his own rules as he brokers shady property deals between the Arab residents of East Jerusalem, and the powerful Jewish groups trying to take control of the area by whatever means possible. Brooding and well-connected, Momi slips between communities with ease. But behind his cool facade, the deadly consequences of his double-dealing are taking their toll, and at the center of his world is 18-year-old autistic daughter Maya.
The story of Israel's first fifty years of statehood, TKUMA brings to the screen the tragedies and joyful milestones of Israel's first half century: the ingathering of the exiles as the fledgling state becomes a haven for Jews around the word. Dramatic, personal accounts and documentary footage of the wars fought over five decades, along with rare behind-the-scenes insights into Israel's efforts to make peace. Who is a Jew Israel wrestles with its national identity. Israel's economic revolution takes the country from the orange to the computer chip in a few years. The people, the places, the spirit of Israel in its first fifty years.
The history of the Land of Israel from prehistoric times to the Ottoman period.
Ross Kemp journeys to the Middle East where the bitter conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives and forced millions to live in fear and misery. Ross visits Gaza one year on from Operation Cast Lead, a massive Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip that saw as many as 1,400 Palestinians die, thousands of homes destroyed, and much of Gaza's infrastructure obliterated. He then travels to Israel and discovers a country divided, one that is surrounded by enemies and living under the constant fear of rocket attacks and suicide bombs from groups dedicated to its destruction.
Four-part series on the 'nakba', meaning the 'catastrophe', about the history of the Palestinian exodus that led to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, and the establishment of the state of Israel. Arab, Israeli and Western intellectuals, historians and eye-witnesses provide the central narrative which is accompanied by archive material and documents, many only recently released for the first time. It begins in 1799 with Napoleon's attempted advance into Palestine to check British expansion and his appeal to the Jews of the world to reclaim their land in league with France, before moving through the 19th and 20th centuries, the British Mandate in Palestine, up to the 21st century and the ongoing 'nakba' on the ground.
November 1947. The United Nations votes the partition plan for Palestine. For some, it is a dream becoming reality; for others, it is the beginning of a catastrophe. Seventy years after this historic vote, the land of Palestine remains an open wound, a battleground for two peoples torn apart by their shared history, a source of inextricable tension in the region and even beyond the borders of the Middle East.
The conflict in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors is given comprehensive treatment in six 50 min episodes produced by PBS. Using archival footage and extensive interviews with participants, the production begins by explaining conditions in Palestine at the end of World War II and the crisis created by the exodus of European Jews who went to the Middle East after the Holocaust. The withdrawal of the British, who had controlled Palestine for decades, is detailed, as is the creation of the state of Israel. Much of the region's history is complex, with the local struggles being conducted at times as a part of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, but these videos do an admirable job of explaining the complexities of the situation. The segment on the Six Day War, for example, is masterful, with the scenes shifting from Israel to Egypt to Washington to Moscow.
A series of ten one-hour documentaries which explores Arab history, culture and society from within through the lives and opinions of Arabs today.
