The heart of Jenin
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The heart of Jenin |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | English , Hebrew , Arabic |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Marcus Vetter , Leon Geller |
| script | Marcus cousin Leon Geller |
| production |
Ernst Ludwig Ganzert , Ulli Pfau |
| music | Erez Koskas |
| camera | Nadav Hekselmann |
| cut | Saskia Metten |
The Heart of Jenin is a documentary by Marcus Vetter and Leon Geller from 2008. The film tells the story of the Palestinian Ismail Khatib from Jenin , who donated the organs of his son, who was shot by Israeli soldiers, to Israeli children. In April 2010, “The Heart of Jenin” received the German Film Prize for Best Documentary. The film is also the starting point for the Cinema Jenin project .
content
“The Heart of Jenin” tells the true story of Ismael Khatib from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank . His 11-year-old son Ahmed was fatally shot in the head in 2005 by Israeli soldiers because of a deceptively realistic-looking toy gun and the associated confusion with an armed Palestinian ; the doctors at the Haifa hospital can only determine his brain death. Ismael Khatib has to decide whether his son's organs donated to be. With his decision (his wife also agrees) he proves humanity at the moment of his greatest pain. The Palestinian enables Israeli children to continue to live in the middle of the Middle East conflict .
The film follows Ismael Khatib's visits to three families whose children were saved thanks to Ahmed's organs. The various encounters - with a Jewish Orthodox , a Druze - and a Bedouin family , but also with soldiers at the checkpoint - always reflect the situation in the conflict-ridden region.
production
The film is a co-production by Eikon Südwest in cooperation with SWR , arte and Filmperspektiven and the Israeli company Mozer Film Ltd. and was funded by the MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg. The film was released on May 7, 2009 in German cinemas with German subtitles.
reception
Both the film itself and Ismail Khatib's decision in 2005 to donate the organs of his slain son met with widespread interest worldwide.
Reviews in German media
The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “[…] A journey through occupied territories and hearts filled with prejudices - and the story of a man who no longer fights his enemies with violence, but confuses them with his humanity. [...] “The Heart of Jenin” cleverly connects Ismael Khatib's personal story with the political background: You see pictures of a Palestinian suicide attack, the destroyed houses of Jenin after an Israeli military action. On both sides desperate people who are left with nothing. "
Deike Diening wrote in the Tagesspiegel about the case:
“... an unavoidable good deed that caused more irritation than a suicide bombing ever could. Defiantly, she stands above the brutal logic of the conflict and is just as compelling: The children with the new organs are really walking around, the gesture cannot be disputed away. The political enemies must also recognize them. It is not impossible that even Ishmael Khatib's anger over the death of his child is contained in this gesture. "
Opinion by the film evaluation office , awarding the rating “particularly valuable”: “The German director and his Israeli colleague have accompanied this extraordinary story from the start and at the same time depict a cross-section of different realities of life in the crisis area between military presence and cultural prejudice. An admirable, humane and politically highly topical plea that does not fail to have an impact! Absolutely worth seeing. "
Reviews in the Israeli media
The liberal Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz wrote: “Of the hundreds of tragic tales of children killed during decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ahmed Khatib's must rank among the most remarkable. [...] One of its most touching, and disappointing, sequences is toward the end of the film, when, two years after Ahmed's death, Khatib and his brother embark on a road trip around Israel in a beat-up car to visit the children whose lives they saved. The climax is a confrontation with the Levinson family, who, in an awkward exchange at their Jerusalem home, apologize for their earlier comments and thank Khatib, but betray a deep misunderstanding about life in the occupied West Bank. "
“Of the hundreds of tragic stories of children killed in decades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that of Ahmed Khatib must be considered one of the most remarkable. […] One of the most touching and disappointing sequences comes towards the end of the film when, two years after Ahmed's death, Khatib and his brother set out in a battered car to visit the children whose lives they saved. The highlight is the encounter with the Levinson family, who apologize for their earlier remarks in an uncomfortable exchange in their Jerusalem apartment and thank Khatib, but reveal a deep lack of understanding of life in the occupied West Bank. [...] "
An author on the German-Israeli website Hagalil on Jewish topics criticized the film on the occasion of the premiere in Jerusalem: “[...] The film is authentic, emotionally charged and impressively well done. […] A really good film that will certainly win many awards. But at the same time it is a one-sided propaganda work, suitable to stir up anti-Jewish feelings in the German public. [...] "
Awards (selection)
- Audience Award of the Dubai International Film Festival
- DEFA Prize of the DOKLeipzig Festival 2008
- Valladolid International Film Festival 2008 - 1st prize in the "Time of History" section
- Amnesty International's 2009 Audience Award “Movies that Matter”
- German Film Award 2010 - Best Documentary Film
effect
The international interest in the film and Ismail Khatib's actions prompted the city of Cuneo in Italy to found a youth center in the refugee camp of Jenin. In Jenin there was a certain lack of cultural facilities, especially for young people.
Director Marcus Vetter, who had stayed in Jenin for a long time during the shooting, also began to work with young people and to offer film workshops. In Ismail Khatib's youth center, the young people worked on their own short films - and discovered that there was no place to show them. Together with Ismail Khatib and his translator Fakhri Hamad, Marcus Vetter became aware of the old cinema in the heart of Jenin, which had been closed since the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987. This is how the Cinema Jenin project was born, which initially aimed to reopen the old cinema and has since grown into one of the largest social entrepreneurship companies in the West Bank.
In 2010, Ismail Khatib was awarded the Hessian Peace Prize in the Wiesbaden state parliament . For the first time, the honor was given to a simple man and not one of the “world leaders”. The laudation was given by the former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor , who described how difficult Khatib's peace gesture had been in the tense situation in Israel. " Most would have thought of revenge, " said Primor. Khatib even resisted this impulse when the families of the rescued Israeli children received it with hostility. Primor cited both Jewish and Islamic beliefs that in both religions it is said that whoever saves a life will save the whole world. " You have saved the world five times ", Primor ended his speech with a simple gesture, his last word was " Shukran ". It is Arabic, Khatib's language, and means “ thank you ”.
Web links
- Archived copy. Archived from the original on May 29, 2010 ; accessed on May 6, 2020 .
- The Heart of Jenin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The heart of Jenin at filmportal.de (with photo gallery)
- “The heart of Jenin” at EIKON
- Information about the film on the Cinema Jenin website
- Daniel Sander: Do-gooder against his will. Documentary “The Heart of Jenin”. In: Spiegel Online . May 7, 2009, accessed January 21, 2011 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The Heart of Jenin" at EIKON ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- ↑ Trailer in German ( Memento from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Article in the SZ: "A heart for the enemy" ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- ↑ Deike Diening: The example. Ishmael Khatib. In: Tagesspiegel. May 3, 2009, accessed January 21, 2011 .
- ^ Opinion of the film evaluation agency on "The Heart of Jenin" , accessed on April 29, 2010.
- ↑ Critique in Ha'aretz ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- ^ Critical Review on Hagalil Online , Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- ↑ Results of the awarding of the German Film Prize 2010 on the website of the German Film Academy
- ↑ Reports from the province of Cuneo with text on "The Heart of Jenin" and the Cuneo Center for Peace ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- ↑ Text from January 2009 on the Cinema Jenin project on the Filmperspektiven website ( memento of the original from December 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Cinema Jenin website
