An Israeli filmmaker uncovers seized PLO archives, raising questions about Palestinian heritage and identity.
Was Palestinian history carefully recorded by the earliest 20th-century filmmakers as a way of preserving their heritage? Or were they, as some Israelis claim, simply disorganised amateurs operating on basic equipment in a primitive society?
In this documentary, Israeli researcher and filmmaker Karnit Mandel uncovers previously unseen footage of Palestinian life and history in a box of old VHS tapes. The cassettes are a small sample from a huge archive seized from the PLO during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Mandel tries to retrieve it from the Israeli army but comes up against overwhelming obstacles and bureaucracy. She hears a range of contrasting views, from Palestinians who describe a well-developed film industry in the 1930s to dismissive Israeli historians who say Palestinian cinema never existed at all. In the end, Mandel is forced to abandon her search – but it highlights the continuing struggle for narrative control over Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.