Doron Djerassi

1966. The premiere of Ram Loevy’s first film, I am Ahmad, sparks a public outcry. Viewers rise, denouncing it as “a knife in the back of the State of Israel.” The short, humanistic film—about a young Arab boy who comes to Tel Aviv seeking work and faces discrimination—is the first in Israeli cinema to center on an Arab character. Despite prior approval, the Film and Theatre Review Board demands cuts, and the controversy only fuels interest. Then, as now, placing an Arab character at the center continues to provoke fear and calls for censorship.

The first ever Israeli documentary film to feature an Arab protagonist is revisited 50 years later by top graduates of the Sam Spiegel Film School.

Nissim Aloni was a king of the Hebrew theater. The magical realm he created on stage brimmed with imagination and poetry, giving voice and vision to the loftiest dreams. But in a world dominated by a mundane, populist democracy and controlled by functionaries, Aloni found he was a king in exile, without a kingdom, without an audience, without critics, and without theater managers to share his whimsical dreams.

In the process of demolishing a Bedouin village, two people are killed: a Bedouin villager and an Israeli policeman. The police declare it a terror attack, but subsequent investigations point to a very different story. Constructing a documentary that feels like a detective thriller, filmmaker Doron Djerassi thoroughly lays out the course of events through interviews, archival materials and security camera footage.

1966. The premiere of Ram Loevy’s first film, I am Ahmad, sparks a public outcry. Viewers rise, denouncing it as “a knife in the back of the State of Israel.” The short, humanistic film—about a young Arab boy who comes to Tel Aviv seeking work and faces discrimination—is the first in Israeli cinema to center on an Arab character. Despite prior approval, the Film and Theatre Review Board demands cuts, and the controversy only fuels interest. Then, as now, placing an Arab character at the center continues to provoke fear and calls for censorship.

The first ever Israeli documentary film to feature an Arab protagonist is revisited 50 years later by top graduates of the Sam Spiegel Film School.

Nissim Aloni was a king of the Hebrew theater. The magical realm he created on stage brimmed with imagination and poetry, giving voice and vision to the loftiest dreams. But in a world dominated by a mundane, populist democracy and controlled by functionaries, Aloni found he was a king in exile, without a kingdom, without an audience, without critics, and without theater managers to share his whimsical dreams.

In the process of demolishing a Bedouin village, two people are killed: a Bedouin villager and an Israeli policeman. The police declare it a terror attack, but subsequent investigations point to a very different story. Constructing a documentary that feels like a detective thriller, filmmaker Doron Djerassi thoroughly lays out the course of events through interviews, archival materials and security camera footage.