This week I’m sharing films from and about Palestine and depicting Palestinian perspectives. Free Palestine!
“The pomegranate is the fruit of the land, a symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth. It is also a euphemism for a hand grenade.” So we’re told in 2018’s In the Land of Pomegranates, which offers an intimate documentary perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is brave enough to suggest that the whole big mess may be even far thornier than it seems from a distance.
Here, German filmmaker Hava Kohav Beller follows the young Israelis and Palestinians who come together for a retreat on international neutral ground to discuss their perspectives on the strife they live with, to see if there are any commonalities to be found. She also meets with ordinary people on either side of the walls — literal and metaphoric — that separate them.
How do we define “terrorism”? Whose side is God on? The questions asked and explored — answers seems like too much to expect — are difficult, and the entire endeavor is enormously, acrimoniously human, and not terrible encouraging: all the passion and conviction of the participants seems to end up dedicated to clinging to the preconceptions they arrived with.
But it’s start, and a very necessary one.
US: stream on Kanopy; rent/buy on Prime
UK: not streaming anywhere, alas
See In the Land of Pomegranates at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
