Censored Voices

Censored Voices Canadian Premiere at Hot Docs 2015 GAT PR Press Summary

Hot Docs: Six films uncovering the secrets of states

By Olivia ? | April 27, 2015 http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/04/27/hot-­‐docs-­‐six-­‐films-­‐uncovering-­‐the-­‐secrets-­‐of-­‐states.html

With a pervasive Internet, omnipresent electronic eyes, invasive technology, tsunami of leaks and frenetic social media, it seems that the world is growing more transparent.

That may be an illusion. The “deep state” conceals sometimes lethal secrets, and government data is buried even as journalists dig deeper for answers. Lines between privacy and secrecy blur dizzyingly.

Meanwhile, criminals shrouded in impunity operate close to the centres of power.

In this year’s Hot Docs festival, one of the world’s top venues for documentaries, six films shine a light on the dark events that affect the life and death of people of many countries, but are kept below the public radar.

Censorship is a time-­‐tested way of suppressing the truth. But in Israel, which prides itself on democratic values, it helped to create a national narrative. In Censored Voices, Israeli director Mor Loushy revisits tapes locked away for more than four decades by their owner — painful, dramatic, sometimes shocking outpourings of soldiers lionized as heroes when they returned from the 1967 war.

They were the basis of a heavily censored book on the Six-­‐Day War that resulted in an almost miraculous Israeli victory over its hostile Arab neighbours — but also the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and parts of the Golan Heights. The tapes were made by eminent Israelis Amos Oz and Araham Shapira.

Loushy persuaded Shapira to give her access. What the tapes reveal is the trauma and ambivalence of those who went to defend Israel’s beleaguered existence but “came back broken,” she says. “They found themselves kicking people out of their homes. We all grew up on the myth of a war without a price. But as Amos Oz says, ‘In war, the winners also lose.’”

Hot Docs continues at various theatres in Toronto until May 3.

Mor Loushy's Censored Voices: Why We're Winning Wars and Losing Peace By: E. Nina Rothe | April 27, 2015 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/e-­‐nina-­‐rothe/mor-­‐loushys-­‐censored-­‐voic_b_7150706.html

"They never said, 'Leave no one alive,' but they said, 'Show no mercy.'" -­‐-­‐ fromCensored Voices In the weeks following the "Six-­‐Day War", in 1967 Israel a group of young kibbutzniks -­‐-­‐ lead by author Amos Oz and editor Avraham Shapira -­‐-­‐ recorded soldiers coming home from the battlefield. The result was a haunting set of tapes that were then partly censored (a good 70 percent of the interviews) by the Israeli Army and bound to be forgotten. A taped testament to what killing a fellow human being does to an individual, what the true "spoils of war" really are, was destined to be hidden away inside some archival vault, never to be heard again.

Until now.

Israeli filmmaker Mor Loushy has finally uncovered and revealed these recording inCensored Voices, a poignant and provocative documentary that I watched at this year's Middle East Now festival in Florence.

Typically, I shy away from pointing out the nationality of a filmmaker, since I believe a great film is a worldly work of art. But in this case, I wanted to make a point that Loushy is indeed Israeli, shining the light on a moment in time that perhaps her country's politicians would like to leave forgotten.

In a recent NY Times review of the film, the author there wondered if, in light of the Gaza attacks this past summer, Censored Voices could "become catnip for contemporary critics."

Instead, in my humble opinion, I think that Loushy, her producer Hilla Medalia (Dancing in Jaffa, After the Storm) and of course, that pioneering of all filmmakers with a conscience, Eran Riklis (Zaytoun, The Syrian Bride, A Borrowed Identity) as well as other of their Israeli colleagues, are trying to change the perception of an apparently impossible situation by discovering the human stories beneath the headlines. And making great cinema in the process.

If we consider watching a movie as our own active measure of standing up for what we wish and want from this world, if we listen instead of just hearing -­‐-­‐ to paraphrase Loushy herself -­‐-­‐ then Censored Voices becomes a movement to change the future, byfinally learning from the past.

It's a great beginning, since Censored Voices is scheduled to be released inside Israel, it has been traveling the world, and this week screens at Hot Docs in Toronto.

Score one for the unifying power of cinema.

A bit of background, a sort of abridged version of the "Six Day War," and why it could be important to understanding today's conflicts and allegiances. On June 5th, 1967, the war was started because both Egypt and Israel believed the other was readying for an attack. To the Arab world, then as today, Israel was seen as an illegitimate state and Egypt had received foreign

intelligence pointing to an Israeli invasion. When all was said and done, on June 10th 1967, just a short but chaotic six days after the war started, Israel had not only conquered control of Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt (the latter was later returned) but also annexed the West Bank and Jerusalem from Jordanian control. Along those borders is where most of the Jewish settlements were later built.

This created a second Nakba ("disaster") for the Palestinians, less than 20 years after 1948. But incredibly enough, Loushy manages to steer clear of political statements and taking sides in her

film, choosing instead to give the facts, through a set of recorded tapes made more than 40 years ago.

Now onto the film itself. When I tell you that a film based on voice recordings and archival photography, interwoven with touching cinematic portraits of the soldiers today can indeed be a spellbinding masterpiece, believe me. Amos Oz (pictured above, listening to the original recordings) is a voice to be reckoned with, pardon the pun, and his lived-­‐in face opening the film captured my undivided attention immediately.

Some of the recordings (30 percent to be exact) previously made it onto a book titledThe Seventh Day: Soldiers' Talk about the Six-­‐Day War, edited by Shapira himself and published shortly after the war. It is to be noted that the version of Censored Voices that I watched has indeed made it past Israeli censors, which means that all those doubts, all the violence and all that which is difficult to hear, and watch in the film, has been given the OK by the Israeli government. To be shown as is, without holding back. Score another one, for humanity...

I had a chance to spend a few precious moments with Loushy herself in Florence. She is a kind, pretty, soft-­‐spoken woman who looks way younger than her thirty-­‐two years. But beneath her lithe appearance, lies a force to be reckoned with, clearly. An old acting teacher of mine, Richard Pinter, always said it's the people who are unpredictable, those who don't show you all they are capable of right away, who are the most interesting. It applied to Loushy, who allows her cinematic prowess to speak for itself.

Finally, as pieces go, this was one of the most complicated for me to wrap my head around. Part selfish wish for peace in the Middle East, part educational look into past history to apply its lessons to our dire-­‐looking future, part personal journey into human feelings I never wanted to experience, Censored Voices unleashed a thoughtful, deeply moving moment in time. One I'll admit I can't wait to repeat, by watching this unforgettable film again, as soon as I can

CP24 -­‐ 04.29.2015 Interview with Mor Loushy aired live Link not available

Hot Docs 2015 radiates with personal, high-­‐stakes stories By: June Chua | April 20, 2015 http://rabble.ca/columnists/2015/04/hot-­‐docs-­‐2015-­‐radiates-­‐personal-­‐high-­‐stakes-­‐stories

Hot Docs 2015 has a lineup with some fabulous documentaries this year and as I peruse the pickings, I see it's going back to some fundamentals. Over the years, North America's biggest documentary showcase has become a glossy panorama of over-­‐produced, TV-­‐centric films. This year, I'm finding a lot of personal films, focussing on individuals and their challenges, that harken back to basics.

Films for every taste There is a cornucopia of documentaries to chose from and it's impossible to encapsulate in one article. So, here are other films, in no particular order, for your consideration: • Drawing the Tiger (dirs. Ramyata Limbu, Amy Benson, Scott Squire) • Drone (dir.Tonje Hessen Schei) • War of Lies (dirs. Paul Zischler, Susanne Mann) • Leaving Africa (dir. Iiris Härmä) • Censored Voices (dir. Mor Loushy) • The Amina Profile (dir. Sophie Deraspe) • Out to Win (dir. Malcolm Ingram) • Nowhere to Hide: The Rehtaeh Parsons Story (dir. Rama Rau) • Haida Gwai: On the Edge of the World (dir. Charles Wilkinson) • Lowdown Tracks (dir. Shelley Saywell) Please watch for these films at your local festival, independent cinema or community screening.

Toronto Film Scene -­‐ 04.28.2015 Interview with director Mor Loshy. Banked for theatrical release

Hot Docs: Six films uncover secrets of the ‘deep state’ By: Staff | April 27, 2015

http://metronews.ca/scene/1351916/hot-­‐docs-­‐six-­‐films-­‐uncover-­‐secrets-­‐of-­‐the-­‐deep-­‐state/

With a pervasive Internet, omnipresent electronic eyes, invasive technology, tsunami of leaks and frenetic social media, it seems that the world is growing more transparent.

That may be an illusion. The “deep state” conceals sometimes lethal secrets, and government data is buried even as journalists dig deeper for answers. Lines between privacy and secrecy blur

dizzyingly. Meanwhile, criminals shrouded in impunity operate close to the centres of power.

In this year’s Hot Docs festival, one of the world’s top venues for documentaries, six films shine a light on the dark events that affect the life and death of people of many countries, but are kept below the public radar.

Censorship is a time-­‐tested way of suppressing the truth. But in Israel, which prides itself on democratic values, it helped to create a national narrative. In Censored Voices, Israeli director Mor Loushy revisits tapes locked away for more than four decades by their owner — painful, dramatic, sometimes shocking outpourings of soldiers lionized as heroes when they returned from the 1967 war.

They were the basis of a heavily censored book on the Six-­‐Day War that resulted in an almost miraculous Israeli victory over its hostile Arab neighbours — but also the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and parts of the Golan Heights. The tapes were made by eminent Israelis Amos Oz and Araham Shapira.

Loushy persuaded Shapira to give her access. What the tapes reveal is the trauma and ambivalence of those who went to defend Israel’s beleaguered existence but “came back broken,” she says. “They found themselves kicking people out of their homes. We all grew up on the myth of a war without a price. But as Amos Oz says, ‘In war, the winners also lose.’”

Hot Docs continues at various theatres in Toronto until May 3.

Censored Voices By: Sheldon Kirshner | April 20, 2015 http://sheldonkirshner.com/?p=9287

The Six Day War produced waves of euphoria in Israel. Within an unbelievable week in June 1967, the Israeli armed forces had crushed several Arab armies, enabling Israel to expand its territory substantially. It was a historical watershed in the history of the Jewish people.

Shortly after the last gun fell silent, a group of kibbutzniks who had fought in the war agreed to talk to the Israeli novelist Amos Oz and the book editor Avraham Shapira. Excerpts from the recordings were published in The Seventh Day, which reflected Israel’s triumphant mood and national ethos of purity of arms.

Unbeknownst to readers, the Israeli army, in accordance with Israel’s censorship regulations, had suppressed what was considered subversive and unpatriotic material.

In Mor Loushy’s thoughtful documentary,Censored Voices –which will be screened at the Canadian International Documentary Festival (Hot Docs) in Toronto on April 28 and April 30 — facts which had been suppressed come spilling out in a series of confessions and observations from soldiers who were there. These interviews, forming the core of the film, are supplemented by file footage of the tense pre-­‐war period, the combat in the Sinai Peninsula and East Jerusalem and the post-­‐war era.

The ex-­‐soldiers, now in their late 60s and 70s, do not discuss their combat roles, but rather focus on their feelings. The political views they express are not necessarily representative of the Jewish population at large, since kibbutzniks of their generation tended to be left-­‐wing. Nevertheless, they leave some hard and uncomfortable truths for viewers to digest.

Flashing back to the weeks before the war, the film conveys the fear and uncertainty that gripped the nation. As hostilities break out, one soldier bound for the Sinai exclaims self-­‐ confidently, “We’ll fuck you up!” Still other soldiers are consumed by shock, rage and despair.

Elation fills the hearts of soldiers who reach the Suez Canal. Another soldier speaks of the sense of pride that accompanies conquest. Yet another soldier admits he was reluctant to fight and just wanted to get out alive.

The camera pans on the wreckage of Egyptian armor in the Mitla Pass and on disconsolate and dusty Egyptian troops who’ve surrendered. An Israeli soldier contemptuously compares the prisoners of war to animals. Egyptian soldiers wandering around the sand dunes are killed, as are some wounded Egyptians. “In the war, we all became murderers,” says an Israeli soldier. The order of the day, he says, was to show no mercy to the enemy.

Recalling the fighting in East Jerusalem, the soldiers make a few telling observations: East Jerusalem is an occupied rather than a liberated city. The sound of the shofer, as blown by the army’s chief rabbi as he reaches the Western Wall, resembles a pig’s grunt. Judaism doesn’t sanctify places.

In a town in the West Bank, a soldier’s stomach turns as he listens to the wailing of an old Arab man leaving his home under duress. He says he didn’t go to war to “evacuate” civilians. Another soldier says that the displacement of Arab civilians is a tragedy in the annals of Zionism, but his conscience doesn’t bother him. Still another soldier identifies with Palestinian refugees because they remind him of Jewish refugees in Europe after World War II. On the Golan Heights, 15 Arab civilians are mowed down in cold blood for no apparent reason.

When a soldier complains, his commander says, “When you chop wood, chips fly.”

In the aftermath of the Six Day War, Israelis celebrate a great victory. People dance in the street.

Tanks roll by in a military parade. But in Jerusalem, a mother whose son was killed in battle cries out, “The Western Wall isn’t worth his fingernail.”

On the English language service of Israeli radio a month after the war, an announcer extolls the unification of Jerusalem. “This is one united, whole Jerusalem,” he intones, ignoring the views of its Palestinian residents. Jerusalem, he adds in dulcet tones, is a city of light and joy.

Juxtaposed against this flowery commentary are stunning comments by soldiers: “Are we doomed to fight a war every 10 years?” “I no longer have the will to steal other people’s land.”

“I didn’t feel Jenin and Nablus were mine.” “We’ve become a conquering army.” “This war didn’t solve our problems. It complicated them.”

As Censored Voices comes to a close, the men who speak these words appear on screen like ghostly apparitions, unburdening themselves of their thoughts. “As long as we occupy another people, we’re not free,” says one man, referring to the Palestinians of the West Bank. Amos Oz is asked to comment. He stands squarely behind what he describes as their “truth.”

The revisionist narrative of the Six Day War that Loushy brings to the screen so boldly leaves an impression.

Hot Docs: Six reviews: Capsule reviews of six Hot Docs movies that delve into the secrets that states keep By: Steve Moore | April 27, 2015

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/04/27/hot-­‐docs-­‐six-­‐reviews.html

Censored Voices Director: Mor Loushy Country focus: Israel/Palestine Wars are heroic from a distance. But the film pierces the more than four-­‐decade fog surrounding Israel’s victorious Six-­‐Day War, with a close-­‐up of the once-­‐censored views of returning soldiers who are confused, traumatized and sometimes disillusioned by what they did.

A historical journey that goes to the heart of Israeli nationhood and of the occupation today.

Trailer:Click here

Hot Docs 2015: Censored Voices Review By: Jason Gorber | April 23, 2015 http://dorkshelf.com/2015/04/23/hot-­‐docs-­‐2015-­‐censored-­‐voices-­‐review/

World Showcase Following on the heels of the 1967 six-­‐day war, which was a dramatic military victory for Israel along with the capture of nearly triple the landmass of the nation, a group of young filmmakers recorded the voices of soldiers returning from the front. Uncovered after nearly five decades, these raw, revealing recollections tell of young victors still merely decades away from the horrors of Europe that brought many of them to the middle-­‐East, finding echoes both good and ill with their new role as both occupier and armed victor.

Director Mor Loushy has reassembled many of those voices on the tapes to listen to their recollections. Visually, it’s at first a powerful thing, witnessing these old men hear the words of their youth. When the film is at its best there’s a conversation of sorts between young and old selves, finding whether the politics has shifted with time. As fascinating as this discourse is, the film itself unfortunately feels both repetitive and uneven, its tendency to linger on those listening neither cinematically compelling or narratively interesting.

The story itself is so remarkable that the film’s stumbles are felt even more acutely. There’s much to admire about the material collected here, it’s simply unfortunate that it doesn’t coalesce into something that more deeply explores the contradictions and ambivalency expressed by these soldiers both soon after battle and following the passage of time.

Screens: Tue, Apr 28 9:00 PM @ Isabel Bader Theatre Thu, Apr 30 6:30 PM @ Bloor Hot Docs Cinema

HOT DOCS 2015 – CENSORED By; Greg Klymkiw | April 28, 2015 http://klymkiwfilmcorner.blogspot.ca/

Censored Voices (2015) Dir. Mor Loushy Review By Greg Klymkiw Censored Voices might be one of the most profound anti-­‐war films made in recent years. Though the backdrop is the 1967 Arab–Israeli Six Day War, the picture brilliantly transcends all contemporary controversies, acting simply and poetically as a testament to the madness of all war and the reality that it's the "people" who suffer as much, if not more than the armed forces.

A few weeks after the war, writers Amos Oz and Avraham Shapira conducted a series of interviews (on reel-­‐to-­‐reel tape) with numerous Israeli soldiers. These tapes were suppressed and/or heavily redacted by the Israeli government for over 40 years until filmmaker Mor Loushy

accessed the unexpurgated audio to listen intently to these young men, to hear their thoughts on what they'd just been through.

Blending news footage, archival materials and using the audio tapes as narrators, Loushy provides a shocking, surprising and deeply moving experience. Tracking down some of the original interviewees, all now old men, Loushy combines the aforementioned with gorgeously lit/composed shots of these former soldiers -­‐ listening silently to their own voices from 1967.

Their voices from back then, reveal the unexpected. Their faces reveal all.

This profoundly and decisively victorious war is how Israel laid claim to Gaza, the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank. Decimating the enemy's military forces was a veritable cakewalk, but the real war endured by the Israeli soldiers turned out to be, at least for many of them, a much more haunting, tragic and frustrating experience than the fields of battle.

In the historic interviews, we hear men -­‐ young men some 40+ years ago -­‐ who are deeply saddened, confused, conflicted, disappointed, if not outright shocked that they found themselves at war with civilians. It's as if they were front-­‐line pawns, but not as cannon fodder as so many young soldiers in war are. While the trauma is still fresh in their youthful minds, we hear devastating stories of non-­‐military personnel being gunned down, beaten, tortured, corralled and forced to leave their homes.

The soldiers, it seemed, were no longer fighting-­‐men, but glorified cattle herders.

In reality, they were not soldiers, they were occupiers.

The men are expected to rejoice over the return of many historical places to Israel, but they can't. They are privy to the suffering of innocent people, even forced to be the instruments of the dehumanizing process of destabilizing and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee and become refugees.

As one of the men states, this has nothing to do with God and/or The Torah. These are, after all, physical structures which have been won. There's nothing in Judaic culture about the holiness of a place. It's the human spirit and God that are Holy.

So many of these stories are heartbreakers -­‐ especially since director Loushy leads us into the film with the happy, hopeful sense of statehood and the determination of a people to reclaim what was once theirs so many millennia ago. The skill, training and superiority of the Israeli armed forces is simply a forgone conclusion. The strategy and surprise Israel employed is also a thing of beauty (albeit a terrible beauty). In fact, we get a sense that the war is a masterstroke of

military genius and might. It's all the shining stuff of good, old fashioned boys' adventure. The qualities of the sublime dissipate quickly, however.

The questions many of the men ask do indeed resonate in a contemporary context. They wonder, so long ago, how a nation (Israel) constantly under attack, surrounded by enemy states can ever really and truly be a nation? Alternately, others feel that a nation which must occupy in a kind of perpetuity can also never truly be a nation.

Hearing these sweet, young men facing such complex moral dilemmas so soon after a victory they should be celebrating, forces them (and us) to confront realities that have always been at the core of war. To hear these voices juxtaposed with actual footage from the period, but most evocatively, against the silent faces of the old men who listen to the sound of their own voices has a strong element of poetic tragedy coursing through the entire film.

Though the current conflicts between Israel and Palestine can't be ignored in the context of Censored Voices, Loushy seems far more interested in capturing a reality that ultimately faces all of us, especially once we recognize and accept that a Six Day War, a 60-­‐day war or a six-­‐year war -­‐ at any time, any where -­‐ is still war and that the true casualties of war are the innocent on both sides of the equation.

Hearing the story of Arab men -­‐ civilians, no less -­‐ standing with their hands raised in the hot sun for hours on end would be despairing enough, but to hear that they've been filling their shoes with their own urine in order to have something to drink, is infused with the kind of sorrow we, as an audience, can never forget. Clearly, the soldiers don't forget this either, as they recount how these same Arab men, learning they'll be given fresh, cool water, collapse in front of the soldiers, kissing their feet in gratitude as they also retch and vomit upon the soldiers' boots. This sequence (and so many others like it) grind our collective faces into the realities of both war and nationhood.

Occupation is not nationhood. It's merely the residual blight of war -­‐ one in which we are all guilty of, and as such, a party to the inherent shame of it all.

Censored Voices enjoys its Canadian Premiere at Hot Docs 2015. For info visit the Hot Docs website HERE.

HOT DOCS 2015 REVIEW: CENSORED VOICES By: Jordan Adler | April 27, 2015 http://thetfs.ca/2015/04/27/hot-­‐docs-­‐2015-­‐review-­‐censored-­‐voices/

Israel’s unprecedented victory over its Arab neighbours in the Six-­‐Day War changed the face of the Middle East. After the 1967 war, Jewish crowds danced euphorically in Jerusalem. However, the soldiers on the front lines had very different feelings. For the first time, interviews with several Israeli soldiers who fought in 1967 are uncensored and available. These recordings were made within weeks of the fighting, ensuring the soldiers’ thoughts were still fresh. Mor Loushy’s doc looks at their reactions to violence, peace and displacing the country’s Arab population.

Censored Voices is mandatory viewing for those interested in understanding the volatile Middle East conflict. We don’t just hear these exclusive clips. Loushy brings the aging soldiers who made these comments back and we watch them react to these uncut recordings. Often, the men nod in recognition with what they said, suggesting these dark memories have not withered away after more than 45 years.

Since the dialogue comes from old audio clips, Loushy accompanies these heartbreaking confessionals with haunting clips of the battles. The harrowing images complement the traumatized soldier testimony.

The director also juxtaposes the pained looks of the young men serving in the army with joyous music atop footage of delighted crowds celebrating the victory.

Censored Voices is a startling, insightful look at how war affects and corrupts young men, with their worries and questions about Israel’s future eerily prescient today.

IS ESSENTIAL FESTIVAL VIEWING? Absolutely. Censored Voices is a mesmerizing look at the moral ambiguity of war. Political junkies should definitely see this riveting, revealing doc.

SCREENING TIMES Tuesday, April 28, 2015 – 9:00 pm – Isabel Bader Theatre Thursday, April 30, 2015 – 6:30 pm – Bloor Hot Docs Cinema More About TRAILER

Howie Mandel film screened at Hot Docs festival By: Jordan Adler | April 21, 2015 http://www.cjnews.com/arts/howie-­‐mandel-­‐film-­‐screened-­‐hot-­‐docs-­‐festival

A look at the immigrant experience in Israel, a comedian’s creative struggles and the making of a groundbreaking documentary are among the hottest tickets for North America’s biggest non-­‐fiction film festival.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival – or Hot Docs, for short – will screen these titles from April 23 to May 3 in Toronto.

Of the 210 films at Hot Docs this year, 59 are Canadian productions or co-­‐productions. Three from that list of national titles are comedies from Jewish Canadian directors.

One must-­‐see doc is the fascinating Censored Voices, which received rave reviews at Sundance earlier this year. Mor Loushey’s film features exclusive audio clips with Israeli soldiers after the Six Day War in 1967.

Those recordings had been censored for many years, but are now available. The comments from Israeli soldiers are startling and insightful, exploring how the war corrupted these young men.

For more information visit the Hot Docs website

Hot Docs 2015: Ten Foreign Affairs Documentaries To See: As the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival kicks off this week, we review 10 internationally focused films worth viewing By: Paul Willis | April 24, 2015 http://opencanada.org/features/hot-­‐docs-­‐2015-­‐ten-­‐foreign-­‐affairs-­‐documentaries-­‐to-­‐see/

With more than 200 documentaries from 45 countries, there is no shortage of good think-­‐films showcased this year at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, which runs April 23 to May 3 in Toronto. While you can find the entire schedule here, this is our list of 10 foreign affairs docs to keep your eye on.

Censored Voices “Suddenly it was a crisis.

Suddenly…I’m in a war? It’s like the books. I’m going to war?

Then suddenly… Then suddenly I felt that I didn’t want it.

Suddenly I saw what a fool I’d been. Why did I ever want a war?”

Censored Voices is an emotional and haunting revelation. It pictures the reactions of Israeli war veterans listening to their own younger voices, stories and opinions, which were recorded days after the Israeli victory of the 1967 war. Israeli authorities up until their release by this documentary, had censored these recordings, presumably fearing that they would hamper the patriotic euphoria following Israel’s defeat of its invaders, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The recordings also raise the issue of prisoner of war and civilian treatment during armed conflict as well as raising questions about the legality of orders given by commanders and actions carried out by Israeli troops.

The film discusses themes like what it means to be victorious in war, what post conflict appraisal could be and how our governments’ role in suppressing truth in order to propagate an image of strength can lead to an escalation of denial and lost honesty and wisdom among a generation when confronted with the prospect of empathy and reconciliation.

Screenings: Tue April 28, 21.00, Isabel Bader Theatre Thu April 30, 18.30, Bloor Hot Docs Cinem

All pictures taken by GAT during the festival are available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/97627695@N03/sets/721576499342 28013

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