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| Reviews: |
| Transcends politics, the filmmakers allow the empty beaches to speak for themselves; rhetoric is unnecessary" - New York Times |
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| "Stylized, unique take on the Middle East conflict ... offers up a world of peace and pragmatism that seems light-years away today" - New York Magazine |
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| "Its strength is in the interviews with Israeli and Palestinian fisherman who are united by their love of the sea and their contempt for politics" - Time Out |
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| "Banned in Egypt" - Middle East wire |
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| "A story of hope, it's a peace promoting film." - BBC World |
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| Released: July 2001. Length: 52 minutes |
| Country: Israel / Gaza Strip |
| Directors: Nadav Harel & Ramon Bloomberg |
| Sold to BBC World and Channel 2, Israel |
| Film Festivals: |
| Best documentary 2002 Brooklyn international film festival |
| Best documentary 2002 Bare Bones international film festival |
| Official selection 2003 Rome independent film festival |
| Presentation Human Rights 2002 Istanbul international film festival |
| Winner certificate of merit current events The 2002 San Francisco International film festival |
| Presentation, world cinema 2002 Flanders international film festival, Belgium |
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| Gazafish ... The updated version |
| Released: September 2003. Length: 52 minutes |
| Co Produced by George Eid see www.wildfist.com |
| Status: In Negotiation |
| Raindance film festival, London, November 2003 |
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| AREA K is an Israeli controlled military marine zone isolating the Gaza strip and preventing Palestinian fishermen from entering Israel, Egypt and international waters. |
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| This documentary follows a business partnership between a clan of Palestinian fisherman from the refugee camps of Gaza and their Israeli counterparts living in the settlement of Dugit, Gaza strip. |
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| In the Gaza strip there are 1,500 fishing boats for the 40 kilometer coastline. The fishing is weak, saturated with boats. The waters that Palestinian fisherman are allowed by the Israelis to fish cannot sustain their needs. Fish know no borders, and fishermen must follow the fish. Fishing in the Gaza Strip is a traditional Palestinian industry, family groups work together over generations bringing fish from the sea. Knowledge is passed on from Father to Son. The Israeli Authorities do not allow Palestinian fishermen access to International waters. |
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| In the partnership, Israeli settlers from Dugit arrange permits from the Israeli Military and Police allowing the Palestinians to fish in Israeli waters and work from the Area K beach where fishing huts are established for the Palestinians to sleep and work from. |
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| Roni Cohen of Dugit works in partnership with Abed Nahal and his Clan from the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City. Udi Kfir an ex-naval commando and underwater spear fisherman works closely with his Palestinian counterparts on the Area K beach. When one of the Palestinian boats drops an engine into the sea Udi retrieves it for them. Roni claims that he sleeps with Palestinians on the beach more than with his wife. They share what comes from the sea. |
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| The film culminates in the depressing and explosive advent of the current Al Aqsa Intifada Fighting. Now the settlement of Dugit is surrounded by enormous concrete blocks against snipers. By night the Israeli army destroys Palestinian homes surrounding the settlement with bulldozers. The Palestinians have packed their things and gone home. The Area K beach stands empty. This is a story about Arabs and Jews, individuals who are struggling together to catch fish in the midst of the painful, historical, racial and territorial Middle East bloodshed. Through the eyes of the sea, AREA K is a story of peace dynamics of what could have been and what so nearly was. It is a peace promoting film. |
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| The sea knows no laws, no governments, no rights and no wrongs. The spirit of God moves upon it and all men are reduced to equals by it. Filmed above and below water over a two-year period starting in April 1999 when peace was still at the top of the agenda and finishing in March 2001 (the seventh month of the bloody Al Aqsa Intifada), the film demonstrates the political complexities of the region as experienced through the daily life of fishermen and their relationship with nature. |
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