Film is really a melding together of three separate stories, all involving the filmmaker, Israeli gadfly Avi Mograbi. Documentary maker Mograbi plays a fictional documentary filmmaker (named Mograbi) who is hired to produce a film on the celebration of Israel’s 50th anniversary of statehood, which occurred on April 30, 1999. Mograbi discovers that this date is also his own 42nd birthday and decides to make a second film, reflecting on his own midlife crisis. But, when he is approached by a Palestinian group who want him to document the destruction of Palestinian villages by Jewish settlers, he finds himself telling a third story: that of the Nakba (‘the disaster’), as the Palestinians call the creation of the state of Israel.
Avi Mograbi
Avi Mograbi, born in 1956 in Tel Aviv, is film director whose projects, regularly centered on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, examine how violence impacts the individual. Mograbi frequently appears in his films, taking the position of both director and concerned citizen in seeking to understand what he witnesses. He studied art and philosophy and has made more than twenty films since 1989, Filmography: Between Fences (2016), Once I entered a garden (2012), Z32 (2008), Avenge but one of my two eyes (2005), August (2002), Happy Birthday Mr. Mograbi (1999), How I learned to overcome my fear and love Arik Sharon (1997), The Reconstruction (1994).
General sponsor
Yom Huledet Same'ach Mar Mograbi
France, Israel
1999, 78', color, 16 mm
Directed by:
Avi Mograbi
Screenplay by:
Avi Mograbi
Cinematography:
Eytan Harris, Ron Katzenelson, Iztik Portal
Edited by:
Avi Mograbi
Producers:
Avi Mograbi, Serge Lalou
Produced by:
Les Films O'Ici
Festivals & Awards:
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival - Runner Up Prize; Doc-Aviv Film Festival - Distinguished Filmmaker Award; Ann Arbor Film Festival - Michael Moore Award for best documentary; Festival of New Film – Split - Special Mention in the international competition
