"This is the most beautiful country in the world," proclaims counterterrorist police officer Yaron as he looks out over Israel with his fellow officers in the first line of Nadav Lapid's Israeli film "Policeman." The film was one of six shown in the University's first-ever Israeli and Palestinian Film Festival this past week.
The contemporary conflict between these two nations makes the combined showing of the countries' films controversial, but festival organizers Eric Axelman '13 and Gili Kliger '12, a former Herald design editor, stressed that the focus of the festival was not political conflict.
Though the event was not deliberately political, the organizers did choose some political films to reflect the contemporary artistic and cinematic voices of both countries, Axelman said. "Policeman" is centered on themes of terrorism and follows the activities of an Israeli counterterrorist unit's leader. Even more controversial, Saverio Costanzo's "Private" is the story of a Palestinian family whose home is seized by Israeli military for strategic reasons.
The festival organizers sought to create a "collage, not a comparison," Axelman said, "showing both narratives, not in a comparative way, but in an observational way."
Brown Students for Justice in Palestine had reservations about the festival. Alysha Aziz '12, a member of the group, said though her group appreciated being consulted in the process, the creation of the festival "implies that the Palestinian narrative can't stand on its own." It also is hard to separate this festival from politics and put these films in "conversation with one another," she said, because of the "uneven power dynamic characterized by the domination of one group of people over another ... making any conversation useless."
Brown Students for Israel, a pro-Israel student group, is relatively supportive of the festival, said spokesman David Gordon '13. While Brown Students for Israel has a clear political stance that is pro-Israel, "we are very much like Israel in that we are also pro-engagement and pro-conversation," Gordon said. "At its core, this is a cultural, not a political event," even if the "organizers ran a pretty thin line," he added.
Recognizing that controversy was almost unavoidable from the beginning, Axelman said that they pushed forward because the "pros outweighed the cons." Both Kliger and Axelman had worked on film festivals before, and this festival was created to fulfill goals that had not been met in those past experiences.
Kliger, who worked on an Israeli film festival last year, said she the festival's goal was not to sway audience members to support a political stance or side. Axelman, who is also the president of the student group Common Ground, which planned a Palestinian film festival last year, said he wanted to create more discussion and honest debate. He also wanted to draw people who did not know much about the conflict into the conversation, he said.
Apart from issues of politics, these movies are a treasure for those who believe themselves unknowledgeable of Israeli or Palestinian culture.
The movies themselves seemed to be well-received, with audience members' criticisms solely focused on other aspects of the festival.
Gordon, who attended "Policeman," said he wished there had been a discussion either before or after the film.
Sandra Gandsman, a Rhode Island resident who attended three of the films and has been to "countless Brown events," was disappointed by audience turnout, adding that at the films she attended she counted fewer than 20 in the audience. The majority of attendees were community members like herself, and not students, she said. She attended "Restoration" on Sunday, which she said was a "good film" but one that "you need a real audience for."
Arnold Herman, another community member and grandfather to a Brown alum, said he wished for a better introduction prior to each film to provide more context for the audience, including facts like when the film was released, the director's background and information about its reception in its native country, he said.
