Boston Palestine Film Festival 2009

Due to the planned construction of the Separation Wall, the Palestinian village of Bil'in in the West Bank, is about to lose more than half of its land to Israel. The residents of the village decide to embark on a nonviolent struggle against the construction of the Wall. The film exposes the extraordinary relationship formed between the villagers and Shai, the director, who arrives with a group of Israeli peace activists (Anarchists Against the Wall) and the conflict that arises between him, as a former IDF soldier, and the Israeli soldiers on the ground.

Shai Carmeli Pollak did not come to Bil’in as a filmmaker, but as an activist, to take part in the protest against the land theft caused by the separation barrier. For a year and a half, he used his camera to document the moments of despair and hope, danger and courage and the birth of true partnership between Palestinians and Israelis. Bil'in has become a symbol of the joint struggle against the barrier and the occupation.