Wall
(Mur)
Screening on Film
Directed by Simone Bitton.
France/Israel, 2004, 35mm, color, 100 min.
Arabic, Hebrew, French with English subtitles.
France/Israel, 2004, 35mm, color, 100 min.
Arabic, Hebrew, French with English subtitles.
Simone Bitton, who self-identifies as an Arab Jew, directed this documentary about the erection of a security wall on the West Bank. Funded by Israel, the stated purpose of the wall is to curb terrorist movements across the border. Bitton uses a series of long takes to contemplatively examine the physical materiality of the wall—the thick concrete, the barbed wire, the electronic fences —as well as the heavy equipment and the workers who are constructing it. These images are interspersed with insightful interviews with Israelis and Palestinians on both sides of the border about the social, political, and emotional impact the wall has on their lives.