WALL
Directed & Written by: Simone Bitton.
Produced by: Thierry Lenouvel.
Director of Photography: Jacques Bouquin.
Edited by: Jean-Michel Perez & Catherine Poitevin.
Music by: Gilad Atzmon &The Orient House Ensemble, Reem Kelani & Rabih Abu Khalil.
Released by: Lifesize.
Language: Arabic & Hebrew with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France/Israel. 95 min. Not Rated.

The opening scene reveals a colorful, seemingly innocuous concrete wall, embellished with painted emerald greenery, flying white doves, and cheerful, bright colors, while the sweet, tender voices of young children inquire as to the film crew's purpose. The children express their relief at director Simone Bitton's Jewishness - now they are sure the crew is unarmed and will not shoot at them. Biting cynicism plays a starring role throughout this 98-minute outcry against the quintessential Middle-Eastern crisis.

A government-sponsored 500-km expanse separating and "protecting" the Israelis from the Palestinians, the wall is the film's glaring and robust protagonist - appearing in practically every scene of the documentary, and possessing an alarming and stridently real voice. Bitton's task has not been a simple one: engaging her audience while filming laboriously long shots of this immobile, man-made object. But it is these outwardly lackluster moments (or minutes, rather) that give the viewer time to reflect what a stretch of concrete can symbolize: a step backward for humanity, the physical embodiment of man's dangerous psychological dependence on hate, and his furtive need for alienation. One need not be an expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations to understand just how this governmental project is burdening Jerusalem's inhabitants. The many interwoven interviews with civilians on both sides reveal a surprisingly impartial view of the seething injustice seeping through either side.

The documentary does not exaggerate nor does it embellish its purpose in any way: it is about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and, in some ways, the possibility of hope that both long to taste. Bitton is quite familiar with her subject matter as some of her past works have been equally identity-driven: The Bombing (1998), a documentary following a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, and Palestine: Story of a Land (1993), recording the history of Palestine with the aid of archival clips.

The irony-drenched Wall is, in many ways, essential. It speaks to a current world situation which must be examined and contemplated, if for no other reason so that the Western viewer realizes his fortune in owning a backyard where he need not fear the sudden death of his children because of sectarian violence; where he is allowed to know and love his neighbor, or choose not to. The Moroccan-born, Jewish-Arab documentarian's purpose is clear: to fight contre la guerre camera in arm, rather than revolver. Parisa Vaziri
August 26, 2005