And I Was There
ואני הייתי שם | Eran Paz | Israel, 2020 | Hebrew/Arabic/English (English subtitles) | Documentary | 65m | DCP | IMDB | Distributor/Sales: Distributor | Festival marketing sample: DocAviv 2020 | Trailer | DocuShuk
Description: During the 2002 IDF Operation Defensive Shield, Eran Paz’s unit invaded a Palestinian home in a pre-dawn raid, apparently commandeering it for surveillance purposes. An inconveniently located wall was smashed. With the family corralled and locked in one of the rooms, the soldiers helped themselves to provisions in the fridge. After sating their hunger, they turned to a bedroom, rummaged through the women’s lingerie and held a drug fuelled trance party. Throughout, Paz filmed the proceedings with his video camera. These recordings were not captured in an official capacity or in order to document abuses. They were merely intended as a personal record of his adventures. What we are shown might not be war crimes, yet are clearly examples of abusive and indecent treatment of civilians.
Paz, now his mid thirties, with a partner and children of his own, reviews the tapes. He is struck by the image of the Palestinian family. Women, one pregnant, young children and old people are crowded and crouching on the floor of a room just before the door is shut. He asks a video technician to print a screen capture of that moment. He seeks out some colleagues from his unit. While painting their portraits, he quizzes them on their recollections of and attitudes to that event. Paz and some, though not all, of his comrades express some ambivalence.
Using a facilitator, Paz tracks down the son of the Palestinian family’s patriarch and arranges a visit. Without disclosing his own identity, he asks the man whether he recalls the time his home was invaded. Leaving the man’s home, he stops his car and appears emotionally shaken. Later, against the backdrop of his painting of his video’s screen capture, he telephones to ask him for forgiveness.
Merits: Paz’s film is a useful document of casual, and probably all too common abuse meted by the occupation. He also seems genuinely remorseful about his part in events that occurred when he was young. Yet, in the absence of anything else, might some view his apology as hollow and his film uncomfortably self serving?
Rating: Some strong language.