Suhell Nafar

Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays graffitis poetry across town. A modern retelling of the famous ancient Sufi parable Majnun Layla.

Attempting to look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a new perspective, documentarian and artist Udi Aloni returns to his native Israel to speak with scholars, activists and politicians on both sides. At the center of his investigation is the Temple Mount, a Jerusalem holy site sacred to both Jews and Arabs. Strongly influenced by the views of his activist mother, Shulamit Aloni, Udi argues for the creation of one state that accommodates both Palestinians and Israelis.

On April 9, 1948, a Jewish militia entered the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and killed over 100 villagers. Soon after, a mental hospital was built on the ruins. The first patients to be committed were Holocaust survivors. A legend says that to this day, the survivors have been communicating with the ghosts of the village. Forgiveness tells the story of David Adler, a 20-year old American-Israeli who decides to move back to Israel, only to find himself committed to a mental institution that sits on the ruins of a Palestinian village called Deir Yassin. Flashbacks and flashforwards reveal the events that led up to his hospitalization.