Films
BI'LIN MY LOVE
BI'LIN MY LOVE
Israel, Arabic, English, Hebrew, English Subtitles, 84 mins
Director(s)/Writer(s): Shai Carmeli Pollack
Genre: Documentary
Themes: Israeli & Arab relations, human rights & social justice, activism
Wolgin Award for Documentary Film
Jerusalem International Film Festival 2006
Synopsis
Bi'lin My Love is a dynamic point-of-view documentary about the struggle of the Palestinian village of Bi'lin, in the West Bank, over its land. The Israeli government divided the village as part of the construction of the separation barrier, and appended half of the land to a neighboring Jewish settlement, Mod’in. Israeli director Shai Carmeli Pollak did not initially come to Bilin as a filmmaker, but as part of Activists Against the Wall, an international peace activists’ organization. Armed with his camera, for over a year he participated in the nonviolent resistance along with the Palestinian villagers and international activists, while capturing confrontations between protestors and the Israeli army and police. His intrusive and investigative camerawork reveals a complex reality and raises difficult and important questions about human rights.
With stunning guerilla aesthetics, the film depicts the struggles of two Bi'lin residents: Mohamed, a member of the village’s local committee protesting the wall, and Wagee, farmer and father of ten, who is losing the majority of his land to the wall. They provide intimate, personal insights into the Palestinian side of the story. Shedding light on this fraught aspect of the Middle East conflict, Bi'lin My Love is an important documentary about the cooperative efforts of Palestinians, international human rights activists and Israeli Jews who feel morally compelled to protest their government’s policies in the West Bank.
