Two bookend films in Amos Gitai’s oeuvre epitomizing his unique view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The first is a new digital version of House, a canonical work produced forty years ago, that chronicles a residence in Jerusalem’s German Colony which belonged to Palestinian doctor Mahmoud Dajani until it was expropriated in 1948 and became home to Jewish immigrants from Algiers. Later purchased and remodeled by an Israeli professor, it is a metaphor for the narrative of Jerusalem. In his latest film, A Letter to a Friend in Gaza, Gitai pays homage to Albert Camus and explores the return to Palestinian villages while interjecting texts by Izhar Smilansky, Emile Habibi, Mahmoud Darwish, and Amira Hass.
House (51 min.) – Prod.: Channel 1 | Ph.: Emanuel Aldema | Ed.: Rina Ben Melech | New digital version courtesy of the Royal Belgian Film Archive | A Letter to A Friend in Gaza (35 min.) – With: Makram J. Khoury, Clara Khoury, Hilla Vidor, Amos Gitai | Ed.: Yuval Orr | Ph.: Oded Kirma | Prod.: Amos Gitai, Laurent Truchot, Shuki Friedman, Mira Bauer | WS: Philippa Kowarsky, Cinephil, Tel Aviv | Format: DCP
