TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Lawbolisted Powerful

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

skinnybert Hey, I understand; we can't expect someone inside of a conflict to present the whole conflict. And Five Broken Cameras certainly shows us how things look when you're in the midst of it.However, our narrator is not just biased; he is also intentionally less than honest, omitting details that might muddy his narrative of a small peaceful village being put upon by invasive developers. Plenty happens, but rarely in cause-and-effect terms that make clear why. Even one-sided presentations need to make sense.There is a truth here that supersedes what the filmmaker intends. While presented as an Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is also an urban-rural conflict: the city expands, takes up land; the locals object to incursion into "their" land; the urban police enforce the expansion. This film captures how that is experienced by the rural villagers -- with no understanding of the urban view, or understanding of how to deal with it, except to see it as a violation that requires resistance.Rather besides the filmmaker's story is what it portends for later: he brings his three-year-old to the barrier demonstrations, which we have already seen to become dangerous; he frames perception of the police as life-threatening outsiders; he frames the whole narrative of his sons' lives in terms of what indignities Israel was perpetrating. Finally, he continuously acts to make his own martyrdom as likely as possible. This is textbook "How To Raise Your Son To Be A Terrorist", and we get to see exactly how & why, by people who only want to do their best for their kids.

tghazal This is a well-made documentary that allows you to experience the life of Palestinian villagers under the unjust Israeli occupation. It is very sad to see such a proud and resilient people suffer on their own land due to a ruthless and greedy occupation. What touched me the most about this film was the bravery of these unarmed Palestinians--every man, every woman and every child--who stand up day after day to the illegal confiscation of their farm land,their olive trees, and to the soldiers who support usurping settlers and shoot live and rubber ammunition at unarmed protesters. The Israeli army also regularly terrorizes and punishes the whole village, down to arresting children. By the way, all this is against international law. Nobody with any mercy in his/her heart could support such oppression.

oldie-681-382709 Rarely has a film so thoughtfully threaded a path through a conflict. The story begins with the families involved and the disparity in power is portrayed. Quickly one perches alongside the cameraman as he captures subtle moments that embody the villagers connection to their land. The cast members are woven into the story where unquestioned armed power, meets determined, non-violent resistance. The inner struggle of each member of the cast is nuanced and reveals by turn, as they step out and find voice to speak for just, and fair treatment. There are moments too, of unexpected beauty, respite for the injuries that seem never to cease. The film is to render a story, out-of-time in character. May you find it worth viewing, I have recommended it to the artists in my community.

doom-ca Five Broken Cameras is one of those pleasant surprises that you encounter as a movie buff. A homegrown low budget documentary that has you wondering right from the start. The title in and of itself had me curious, and helped pull me in - is this guy some camera shop mechanic or what? Who entitles their documentary after broken cameras? Fortunately, that mystery is solved instantaneously when you find out the film maker's journey through a Palestinian's point of view about the erecting of Israeli wall. It's an eye opening experience to see the progression of the film maker, both in his journey to see the building of the wall either diminished or stopped and his experience as a film maker in capturing the whole experience of the Palestinian domestic way of life. As a North American we are often removed from the complexities of the mid east and most of us are too busy living our own lives to really get a taste of events there. We see it on CNN or read about events in the papers, but it is rare to see such a gem of a documentary that really provides a domestic, gritty look at daily existence on the west bank. If you are a documentary lover, you will enjoy this movie, even if you are not - and just curious about Palestinian life - it's worth a look. I hope you enjoy the documentary - I know I did.Take care Seebs