A house divided by war: front door occupied, back door 'free.' Welcome to the absurd.
Najwa, Nawal, and Siham, three Palestinian widows, live with their 11 children in a house on Shuhada Street in Hebron. Their house lies on the border; the façade is under Israeli occupation, the Palestinian Authority controls the back. At the entrance to the house is a military post; on the roof the Israeli army has placed a watch point over Palestinian Hebron. The three women, trapped in the middle and constantly surrounded by Israeli soldiers, carry on their difficult lives in a perverse situation: the occupation becomes a routine, the absurd becomes a given. This is the story of an occupation that extends to the staircase and the roof of the house, where it encounters poverty, loneliness, pain, but also the small joys of everyday life. This is an internal prison, the external one is the ongoing occupation.
Direction
Patient, unflinching observation that refuses spectacle.
Editing
Rhythmic cuts between confinement and fleeting freedom.
Director
Anat Even
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shuhada Street was once Hebron's bustling commercial center; since 1994, Palestinians are banned from driving there and most shops were forced to close.
Even and Ushpiz filmed over two years to capture how occupation calcifies into furniture—literally, soldiers become part of the household architecture.
IL
