The Other Israel Film Festival 2025
The selection of films in this year’s festival reflected the pain of Israeli Jews, Palestinians, and the Bedouin citizens of Israel in a mixture that was both exhausting and uplifting.
How does one measure parallel tragedies and anxieties? It begins by being willing to hear the trauma in both narratives. The follow-up conversations after the screenings presented additional insights.
Many of the movies shown have received limited viewership due to the cultural boycott of Israeli films. Even some Israelis have signed on to the circulating petitions as they acknowledge that their work can be considered part of the Israeli hasbara machine.
However, as Isaac Zablocki, the Director of Film Programs at JCC Manhattan, wrote in a paid post for JTA, “institutions that present them [films] are also being shamed and boycotted. These voices are essential for cultural progress and collaboration between Palestinians and Israelis and must be heard.”
What are the common themes of each group? Unfathomable sadness and stress as they are locked into systems beyond their control and enveloped in the maelstrom.
In “Open Wound,” directed by Yousef Abo Madegem and Ofir Trainin, Bedouin Israelis are caught between divided loyalties. A character states, “Concerns and helplessness are boundless. There are tears on both sides.” Another, when talking about his connection to the land, says, “Our bond with the soil is in our blood.” During the October 7 Hamas attack, Bedouins were killed and taken hostage. Several were involved in recognized acts of heroism. But in today’s conditions, the plight of Israeli Bedouins in the Negev is marginalized, and Jewish extremism is acutely felt.
Moving to the Israeli side of the equation, “I Cried in Gaza“ profiles women who served in active combat for the first time since 1948. The stats reveal that 4,000 female soldiers are receiving mental health care, with half of the women combat soldiers suffering from PTSD. There have been other documentaries about the price Israeli troops pay, both from post-military action trauma and the ramifications from facing “moral injury” (intense psychological distress as a result of either taking actions or not preventing actions that conflict with an individual’s moral or ethical beliefs). However, this is an exclusive look at how women responded. Through three separate interview sessions in 2024 (May, September, and December), each individual opens up about their emotional states. They relate the “fear of dying and the madness of war” and share the experience of reciting the Kaddish over the dead, the imagery and sounds that are a part of their daily lives through flashbacks and intrusive memories. These lead to panic attacks and personality shifts. In January 2025, the women were called up again for two months of service in Lebanon. The film ends with the question, “Is it ethical to recruit traumatized female fighters for additional service?” It leaves the viewer with more than one issue to grapple with.
“The Smugglers“ tells the story of the Israeli ban on Arab language books, which serves to suppress and negate Palestinian history and identity. With the humor of a road-trip adventure, it features Michel El-Raheb, the founder and owner of Café Yafa, and his nephew, Tony Copti (who directed and wrote the film with Yaniv Berman). The duo eats and travels their way to local and international book fairs, from Bethlehem to Cairo and Amman, Jordan. There is a joyfulness and determination in their whirlwind expeditions, which at times takes a page out of the theater of the absurd. Black-and-white animated graphics add a comic-book flavor to a deadly serious situation. The men encounter customs agents and various regulations in each country. Finally arriving in Israel, with translations of Anton Chekhov and other authors in their luggage, they are informed by officials, “Anything produced in Syria or Lebanon will be confiscated.” Undeterred, they continually buy new texts to stock shelves with political and historical printed matter, and bring them back to what other Arabs refer to as “the inside.”
Yaffa was the cultural capital of Palestine until 1948. Books were readily available, and “every home had a library.” Due to censorship, there is a loss of the Arabic language. Reading is primarily in Hebrew and English.
Book banning began with the British in 1930, stemming from the Mandate laws. In 1933, regulations were codified to assert control over material that the British considered problematic to their authority and that could potentially incite population unrest. (That same year, Germany had its book-burning event.)
Questions about how to abolish such laws are raised, but it doesn’t seem likely with the current right-wing leadership. The whole project’s purpose is to erase Palestinian identity. (Israel’s previous governments did this with the Palestinian film archives as well.)
Why was there a need to confiscate over 70,000 books and store them in the Israeli National Library under the classification of “looted material”? Does one culture have to be obliterated for another to flourish?
“The Sea” had its world premiere at the festival. It is directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak and produced by Baher Agbaria in a joint Israeli-Palestinian production. It takes a devastating look at a young boy from the West Bank who is kicked off a bus taking him and his schoolmates on a class trip to the Mediterranean Sea. At a checkpoint, his paperwork is found to be “wrong.” An Israeli soldier boards the vehicle, and the subdued reaction of the Palestinian children to his presence says volumes. What follows is a nuanced approach that paints a picture of Palestinian life within Israel and the West Bank. The audience experiences the travails of Palestinian day workers in Israel, the lack of freedom of movement, constant fear, and the daily struggle for personal dignity.
Carmeli-Pollak became an activist after visiting the West Bank and witnessing the conditions faced by Palestinian inhabitants. As the winner of Best Film at the Israeli Ophir Awards, “The Sea” received the slot to represent Israel in the foreign film category at the Oscars. The Israeli Culture Minister, Miki Zohar, a member of the Likud party, has attacked the film as “disgraceful.”
Coming up: Long-form pieces about two other films shown at The Other Israel Film Festival.
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This action came to my email this week:
“A few days ago, Palestinian human rights activist Aymen Ghriab was kidnapped by the Israeli military when documenting Israel’s current attempt of ethnically cleansing the village of Fasaiyl.
Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine (UCPIP) as well as many of Aymen’s colleagues are urging all who can to contact their local representatives, as well as the Israeli embassy, to call for his immediate release. Colleague Andrey X made a full statement here that you can read prior to taking these steps.
Aymen has been steadfast in his commitment to nonviolence, documenting violence and working alongside UCPIP. His targeting is part of a broader campaign of eliminating solidarity work not only by deporting activists, but punishing Palestinians that work with them.”