Film: Budrus
Year of production: 2009
UK Release date: 16th May 2011
Distributor: Dogwoof
Certificate: E
Running time: 81 mins
Director: Julia Bacha
Genre: Documentary
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory/USA
Language: Arabic/Hebrew/English
Review by: James Garner
Brazilian director Julia Bacha’s award-winning feature documentary follows the attempts of Palestinian community activist Ayed Morrar to prevent Israeli forces from constructing part of their Separation Barrier through his village. In opposing the might of the Israeli authorities, Morrar manages to unite different factions and entrench a culture of non-violent resistance that the Israelis find very difficult to combat.
The residents of Budrus, a small village in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, face a terrible dilemma when they discover that occupying Israeli forces plan to build a wall right through their community, one that will uproot the olive trees that are so vital to their livelihoods and cut them off from surrounding communities.
Enter Ayed Morrar, a quietly spoken yet deeply determined community organiser who launches a peaceful campaign to resist the plans and protect his community. Morrar enlists the helps of his teenage daughter Iltezam, who succeeds in convincing the women of Budrus to support the resistance, and also manages to convince rival Fatah and Hamas members to put aside their differences and join forces.
As the campaign continues to draw attention to the struggle in Budrus, progressive Israelis and international observers join the campaign, forcing the Israeli military to confront the reality that the world is watching their actions, and that they cannot simply respond with brute force…
Director Julia Bacha succeeded in completing Budrus in spite of having to film in very difficult – in fact, at times, very dangerous conditions. Apart from the complications of shooting in close proximity to frustrated, anxious and, in many cases, inexperienced Israeli forces, Bacha also had to get the modest Morrar, initially uncomfortable in the spotlight, to open up in front of the camera.
What unfolds is a powerful and insightful story of human determination and resistance to oppression. Morrar is not the type of leadership figure who makes a lot of noise or churns out rousing sound bites, but in his own quiet, unassuming way he inspires people around him to stand up for their community.
Though Budrus is very much a documentary about the resistance campaign that Morrar set in motion, it also includes interviews with Israeli border police officer Yasmine Levy and Israeli military spokesman Doron Spielman. While Spielman comes across as little more than an arrogant propaganda lackey suffering from acute tunnel vision, in Levy we see glimmers of recognition that there is something intrinsically wrong with Israeli actions against Palestinians. At times, when young Palestinian women call out her name and invite her to join them, she looks visibly uncomfortable and confused. In a postscript to the documentary, it is revealed that she left the border police and started a family.
It is also heartening to see Israelis joining in the efforts to save Budrus, and to watch how they are welcomed by Palestinians who have very good reason to doubt their motives. In one particularly touching scene, Morrar’s daughter Iltezam smiles as she talks about how meeting Israelis who have joined their campaign has changed her view of Israeli people and made her realise that they’re not all the same as the border police and military who threaten their existence.
Eventually, in spite of severe provocation by the Israeli forces and repeated setbacks, the campaign succeeds in forcing the Israelis to change the route of the Separation Barrier and leave the people of Budrus to continue their lives in relative normality. The Israeli authorities claim that the changes have nothing to do with the resistance campaign, as you would expect, but it is clear that the efforts of Morrar and his fellow Palestinians have succeeded in forcing them to alter their plans.
Looking at the wider picture, it may seem like a small victory, but as we learn in the closing minutes of the documentary, it is a victory that spreads hope to other parts of
the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Looking even further afield, it suggests what might be possible in the Middle East as a whole.
Bacha makes no claims to have uncovered a solution to the complex web of problems that blight the region, but her documentary does succeed in throwing a welcome light on a conflict that is shrouded in darkness, muddied by political chicanery and reduced to a narrow set of stereotypes by the mainstream news media.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict may seem like a subject that has been covered to death, but Julia Bacha’s Budrus is thoroughly absorbing and thought-provoking in the way it encourages us to see things through fresh eyes. JG
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