The topic is frustratingly one of the most vital of our age but it tends to get obscured by the views of the film-makers. Jewish voices are restricted to soldiers discussing an infamous massacre. They give woolly accounts of an attack on a mosque, describing a counter terror operation that most occupants survived. But the testimony of an Arab who as a boy was press-ganged into removing the bodies is a far more convincing. He describes spending days lugging putrefying bodies from the building. “There were maggots everywhere.”
But overall what one is left with here is the impression of a film which doesn’t much add to a shortfall in popular journalism from the Arab perspective, feeling deeply hesitant around large parts of it’s story. As a result it all feels increasingly dubious as it progresses. There is a scattershot and uneven quality to the documentary aspects, which don’t dovetail with the banner sci-fi conceit (itself only used for scant minutes.)
“…does bring something new to the table…”
So what we have here is mostly a selection of interviews with unnamed sources. That is simply not up to par for any documentary, and it lets the film down. It is especially frustrating as there is fresh material here; recent glimpses of Jewish police clearly joining a mob throwing rocks at a mosque, an elderly man’s heartbreaking description of having his home stolen.
But these dynamic flashes are swamped by far weaker material; such as a very long section featuring an Arab teacher and her class that ends with her in tears when the primary school kids don’t respond to exercises in racial pride and nationalism. As Walter Sobchak might have put it; “Eight year olds, dude.”
This film does bring something new to the table, but it is ultimately brought low by a barely executed theme and uneven content of unclear provenance.
"…mostly a selection of interviews with unnamed sources"
