Tag: Palestine

5 Best Documentaries I watched in 2023-2024 And You Should

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1. The Settlers (inside the Jewish settlements)

Scary look at the mentality of the Jewish settlers in Israel. A Jewish version of ISIS. More dangerously, it has manifested itself today into the burning of villages and killings innocent Palestinians by the settlers in the West Bank in 2023, which then lead to Hamas retaliation on October 7, 2023, and consequently started the Gaza Genocide which is still on going with over 40,000 civilian deaths mostly women and children so far.

It is a must watch to understand the complexity of the region and the mentality of what is forming the State of Israel.

2. Chimp Empire | Mahershala Ali on Netflix

Enter into the world of our closest cousin. We have 98% same DNA. Understanding them is understanding some of our basic instincts. The largest group of chimpanzees ever discovered have built a complex society deep in the forest of Ngogo, Uganda — but ambition and neighboring rivals threaten to destabilize their empire. Narrated by Academy Award® Winner Mahershala Ali and directed by Academy Award® winner James Reed, Co-Director of My Octopus Teacher.

3. My Octopus Teacher

A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world. Gives you a new perspective to look at all creatures around us at a time of environmental crisis.

4. Lakota Nation vs. United States

A provocative, visually stunning testament to a land and a people who have survived removal, exploitation and genocide – and whose best days are yet to come.

5. Navalny

Well, he is dead now. But this documentary was made before his mysterious death in a Russian prison. Poison always leaves a trail. The fly-on-the-wall documentary follows Russian opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, through his political rise, attempted assassination and search to uncover the truth.

Ahed’s Knee, Stepping Out of the Story

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I watched Ahed’s Knee, an Israeli film by Nadav Lapid, a very advanced director whose stories fragment and detour in shocking ways.

Ahed AlTamimi is a teenage Palestinian activist. She was born in 1997 in the village of Nabi Saleh, which is located in the occupied West Bank. Her family has been involved in resistance against the Israeli occupation for years and she has been participating since she was a little girl.

In December 2017, Ahed slapped an Israeli soldier who was guarding her house. The incident went viral on social media and led to Ahed being arrested by Israeli authorities and put into prison for eight months.

An Israeli member of Parliament suggested she be shot in the knee. The film starts focused on producing a show about Ahed’s Knee and then becomes more about the director’s journey and censorship in showing his film.

The film starts focused on producing a show about Ahed’s knee, but quickly evolves into an exploration of the decay of Israeli society and the rise of censorship as a way to protect such a decaying society.

Numerous dance scenes show the randomness of cultural production and arbitrariness of censorship. It is also a surreal representation of the different facets of Israeli society. The director here is making serious subjects not serious by using dance to represent them.

The camera is hijacked later by a monologue that I saw as a way for the director to speak to the government and through it to the Israeli people.

The film disintegrates and questions the concept of negative aggrievement, toxic tensions, oppressive systems, irrational censorship, and through the desert settings, the emptiness at the end of this whole project called Israel.