ASUROT (DETAINED)

In the centre of Hebron, three young Palestinian widows are trapped in the midst of conflict. Najwa, Nawal and Siham live with their 11 children in Hebron. Since the retreat of the Israeli army in 1997, their house has become a symbol for the absurdity of the occupation. It lies exactly on the border between Israel and Palestine. The front falls under Israeli command, the Palestinian authorities control the back. At the entrance to the house there is a military post, on the roof the Israeli army has placed a watch point over Palestinian Hebron.

The three young women, constantly surrounded by Israeli soldiers, get on with their difficult lives in this perverse situation, as prisoners in their own home. The occupation has become a routine, the absurd a given. In the house on Shuhada Street, we encounter poverty, loneliness and despair, but also the small joys of everyday life. This is a sensitive close-up portrait of three women under the double oppression of Israeli occupation and their male dominated society, far from the common stereotypes.

"As Israeli Women directors, tired of the cumulative effects of oppression in the occupied territories in our own society, we wished to present the arbitrariness of the occupation as seen via the barred windows of an occupied house, in order to show the thin line between a smile and a gun shot. The intimacy and affection that developed between us and Najwa, Nawal and Siham during the course of our year of filming enabled us to present them in their full humanity, as real women, far from the stereotypical image of Palestinian women held by our society." (Anat Even & Ada Ushpiz)

Awards: Golden Dove, Leipzig 2001; Award of the Ecumenical Jury, Leipzig 2001; Honorary Mention, Jerusalem 2001; The Audience Award, Vesoul 2002; Special Mention International Documentary, Lissabon 2002

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