REVIEW: Cinema Release: Budrus

Film: Budrus
Release date: 24th September 2010
Certificate: PG
Running time: 78 mins
Director: Julia Bacha
Starring: N/a
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Dogwoof
Format: Cinema
Country: Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory/USA

The tagline which accompanies this award-winning documentary states that between Israel and Palestine you have “the most divided people on earth,” but whilst governments and certain groups are content for violence and animosity to continue breeding between their countries, Julia Bacha’s film shows that it’s the everyman that is ultimately affected – an everyman who can unite with other nationalities, and show the sort of leadership skills his country has been severely lacking for so long.

Budrus is a small village of 1500 people in Occupied Palestine Territory; an agricultural village which cultivates olives.

When the Israeli government decided to build a Separation Barrier inside Palestine in response to suicide bombings, villages like Budrus were being cut off from hundreds of acres of their land (as one Israeli army captain interviewed says, “less fortunate than the death of an Israeli civilian”).

As CAT diggers begin uprooting trees in Budrus, Ayed Morrar brings together the village’s communities (of both Fatah and Hamas members) who are incensed by the confiscation of 300 acres of their land, the uprooting of 3,000 olive trees, and the impact on their cemetery. These villagers form an alliance to stop Israel destroying land which is “not their own” through peaceful/non-violent demonstrations.

But with operations being delayed, Israel becomes aggravated, sending in unsympathetic and trigger itchy border police, and declaring the village a closed military zone. Of course, Ayed and his comrades will not be deterred, creating strategic operations and gaining international support, including citizens from the neighbouring country they’ve been at loggerheads with for so long.

However, with government figures being left red-faced on Israeli TV by the disruptions caused by a small, poor village in Budrus, this fallout is soon escalating out of control…


In many ways, the biggest fault you could pick with this documentary is ultimately its great success, and what makes it such a riveting watch. The film takes a longstanding and complicated conflict, and largely ignores it to milk as much drama and therefore entertainment out of one by-product of two countries at war. It’s also unarguably biased, less about offering a balanced account of the issues that are affecting the two neighbouring countries, or offering any historical context – the reasoning behind this operation, which is ultimately many heinous and inhumane crimes against Israeli civilians, which cannot be acceptable in any circumstance - but creating a soap opera of sorts where the good and the bad guys are painted with very broad brush strokes.

It is, of course, not to say this issue was not vitally important to the communities affected, and wholly unfair, and with the Israeli’s playing up to the part as villains of the piece, both in the violent actions which are caught on film, and the interviews given to protagonists involved in the incidents captured at a later date (border police officer Yasmine is particularly cold and unrepentant), you are soon engaged with the villagers, and empathetic to their plight – slanted, of course, but enlightening still that for all the news we receive of suicide bombers, that this is not the mindset of a country on the whole.

As is the case throughout the world, many communities and religions are pillared for the actions of a small group of extremists, and so the filmmakers cleverly allow us to get close to the Morrar family, in particular, and gain a real sense of community, which they share with people who are equally downtrodden, but still show great love and respect for one another, and with no motivations to upset the status quo or harm others. Shockingly content in many ways, and although the Israeli’s are the bad guys we see on screen, the Palestinian government provoke even more anger, given little mention or screen time, but seemingly weak and unfitting to lead a people who deserve better, and at the very least support.

With the bigger picture largely forgotten, and our attachment to such likeable characters – who humour with deadpan comments such as “not normal if no-one is injured” - momentum builds throughout the documentary, as the women (led by Ayed’s 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, who has a “duty to perform”) become empowered, minor victories, which are cleverly thought out, and marches/rallies lift as dramatically as we are sent crashing down to mourn olive trees, their livelihoods, being uprooted without care. The voice of a man, clearly cracking as the emotion gets to him is heartbreaking (the filmmakers don’t miss a trick, adding gentle piano to heighten the viewer’s sensations when the opportunities arise), the camera panning across a now barren land, and a child wandering a dusty street in their mother’s shoes.

As tensions increase, the military/police become progressively more heavy-handed, and having been influenced to such an extent by the filmmakers, it becomes the sort of edge of your seat fare that big-budget blockbusters seem incapable of delivering any more. As shots fire, and the anxiety and panic is caught on camera, the cries of “oh my god” are simply chilling. But it’s running this whole gamut of emotions that ensures you appreciate the ultimate ‘feel good’.


Undeniably manipulative, and, without a better grip on the history, it’s an imbalanced piece of documentary making, but it’s probably a story that needed to be told, and given the emotional charge that runs throughout, it’s absorbing stuff. DH