The First 54 Years
Image copyright Avi Mograbi
Avi Mograbi | France/Israel/Finland/Germany, 2021 | Hebrew/English (English subtitles) | Documentary | 110m | DCP | IMDB | Contact: The Party Sales | Festival marketing sample: Berlinale 2021 | Clip
Description: With the purported aim of producing a ‘Manual for Military Occupation’, Avi Mograbi uses the example of the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip as a case study. Structured like a lecture with sections bookended by title slides, complete with slide projector sound effects, Mograbi talks directly to the camera. This occupation’s objective, he believes, is the expansion of the state. The chapters outline diverse methods used by the occupiers and are supported by detailed testimonies of 38 ‘Breaking the Silence’ (שוברים שתיקה) members (all former IDF soldiers or occupation functionaries), archival and activist footage.
The first section tells how those displaced during the war (or temporarily away in other parts of Jordan or abroad) were prevented from returning. Those who tried to infiltrate back were hunted and expelled. Subsequent sections relate how the settlement project was used to change the demographic balance; how dubious security concerns facilitated the theft of privately owned lands and how the promotion of snitching was used to shred the social fabric of the indiginous population. Collective punishments, harassment and arbitrary cruelties were used to crush any dissent and engender feelings of trauma and helplessness. There are shocking allegations of serious war crimes during the first and second intifada and the more recent operations in Gaza including extra-judicial killings targeting non-combatants.
Merits: In last year’s And I Was There, Eran Paz recalled his IDF unit’s pre-dawn raid of a West Bank’s family’s home, selected as a base for surveillance purposes, during the 2002 Defensive Shield operation. After herding the adults and children and locking them in a room, his comrades smashed an inconveniently located wall, raided the fridge, partied and rummaged through the women’s underwear closets. Paz did not film these events at the time in any official capacity or as an activist. He was merely recording his adventures: personal-use occupation porn. One of the clips from Paz’s original footage is used in Mograbi’s film. Shorn of Paz’s awkward attempt to reconcile with his victims, it is more effective here.
Screened at last year’s Berlinale, Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s The Viewing Booth lamented the failure of Palestinian and anti occupation activist videos uploaded on social media platforms to change viewer attitudes. Here, contextualised by Mograbi’s rigorous analysis and supported by the testimonies, this film’s impact on Israeli and diaspora Jewish audiences might be more powerful. Nevertheless, the absence of a musical soundtrack and the extensive segments featuring Mograbi talking directly to the camera may make the viewing experience demanding for some viewers.
Rating: Graphic violence.
Programming considerations: Very critical of Israeli policies.