21st Century World: el muro de Cisjordania
21st Century World
21st, May 2007
At last year’s ‘Almería en Corto’, we launched a new section entitled 21st Century World, which deals with the socio-political issues of different areas on the planet, and their consequences for everyday people. The series was dedicated to Latin America, and it turned out well: there was a positive response from the public and genuine interest raised in the conflicts of Mexico, Brazil, Colombia... It looked like we had found a path to be followed. For this reason, 21st Century World continues this year.
This time, it focuses on one of the key issues in the modern world: the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, a problem that is beginning to look endless. We have decided to name it ‘The Wall’, an allusion to the sadly famous (and unfinished) West Bank Wall, which has turned into the best visual metaphor for the Israeli and Palestinian’s failure to come together and an issue dealt with primarily by the two short films that open and close the series.
We must mention how particularly complicated it has been to put on a series such as this one. Not because of the quality of the films, which is notable, but rather due to the enormous difficulty in being objective, especially when the media give such a monolithic vision of the facts, as a story of victims and tyrants. We know that the Israelis and Palestinians should be the ones to speak about it, and for this reason the bulk of the short films presented here are by them. There is foreign presence as well, such as this year’s Oscar winning short fiction film West Bank Story, which shows the facts from the unusual perspective of comedy. And really, it seemed important to us to bring out, in the midst of so much desolation, a salutary smile as well.
A couple of considerations before finishing. First, there is not a single short film openly pro-Zionist or pro-Palestinian, or vice versa: in these shorts, there are no good guys and bad guys, just human beings. Second, Israel’s industrial supremacy in terms of audiovisuals is obvious. It is clearly a developed country, while Palestine is clearly a developing country. Indeed, it can be seen by the overwhelming superiority in the number of Israeli films compared to Palestinians ones. In any case, we have tried to make both peoples appear in an impartial way. And curiously, the Israeli short films have been the ones that have provided this impartiality: don’t ask us why, but the majority of the most well recognized Israeli short films in recent times are not exactly pro-Zionist. Perhaps they have access to other visions that do not appear on our daily news programs.
In any case, if you want to know more about the conflict through truly authorized eyes, and what is best, with an admirable sense of criticism and self-criticism, do not miss ‘The Wall’.
Óscar de Julián
Director of 'Almería en Corto’