Budrus
Budrus
Julia Bacha / Palestine, Israel, USA / 2009 / 79 min.
Ayed Morrar lives with his family in the village of Budrus. Like many communities in the Palestinian Territory, it is due to be separated by Israel's security wall. Local people are going to lose part of the place they have called home for many long years. One local tells the camera that when an outsider invades your land, death seems a lot easier - you actually just wait for it. By contrast, Ayed refuses to give in, and starts, along with his daughter, to organise non-violent action in resistance to the plan. Those protests against the Israeli bulldozers see the uniting of the otherwise at-odds Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas, who are themselves joined by Jewish opponents of the wall. This film, which mainly takes place on the "field of battle", features the voices of both West Bank residents and senior Israeli military personnel. What at first seems like an impossible dream becomes reality, and Budrus becomes an example to other endangered Palestinian communities. Julie Bacha's film has won awards at a number of international festivals, including the Berlinale 2010.