Arquivo

A documentary in which the director revisits, twenty years later, the theme of one of his first films (House, 1978) made for the Israeli TV and banned at the time. The film is again set in Jerusalem in the same house as the first, and its symbolic importance becomes clearer as its past and present owners are interviewed, as well as the neighbors and residents of the area. Originally, the house belonged to a Palestinian family, the Dejanis, who were evicted. Its ownership was later transferred to several Israeli families, who occupied this part of Jerusalem and today are affected by the constant instability of the area. Each new resident becomes like a metaphor for the upheavals of everyday life in Israel. Gitai interviews both evicted Arabs, longing for a more peaceful future, and Jews, who have nothing against them but nevertheless come to live in their houses. In a scene of the film, Gitai asks an American tourist about the meaning of the street name and ends up being criticized by him for “trying to find politics behind everything”. The director seems to disagree with the American’ viewpoint. His films depict the small details of everyday life within the broader context of the world.