movie review: budrus

Sometimes I forget that the Palestine I know and love is so very different from the view of Palestine and Palestinians that gets presented in the mainstream media and is absorbed more or less uncontested by most Americans.  Anyone who wants to see my Palestine--the real Palestine--should watch Budrus.

Budrus is a good documentary by any standard, but as an education tool it is simply superb.  It shoots down so many myths about Palestine and Palestinians all at once--that Palestinians are unreasoning violent terrorists; that Israel is just defending itself; that there is too much ingrained hatred for Palestinians and Israelis to ever live and work together; that Palestinian women and girls are meek and submissive and play no role in the struggle.  All these stereotypes and more are soundly demolished in the film's slight one hour and eighteen minute running time.

When the residents of the West Bank town after which the film is named learn that Israel's apartheid wall will slice through their town's land, cutting through the cemetery and separating villagers from most of their agricultural land, they decide to resist, using classic tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience.  The Israeli army, predictably, responds with disproportionate, punitive violence.  The struggle unites local activists from Fatah and Hamas, men and women, young and old, Palestinians, internationals and Israelis.  Lead organizer Ayed Morrar's teenage daughter Iltezam is a force unto herself.

The scenes of Palestinian and Israeli activists defending each other against the army are some of the most inspiring moments in the film.  You can see two groups of people learning to trust and care about each other like family.  "They don't all hate us," realizes Iltezam Morrar, speaking about her new Israeli friends, which is striking because it's usually framed the other way around.  You can see the change in the Israeli activists too, how someone from an oppressor settler-colonial society can be transformed by switching sides and throwing their lot in with the oppressed.  In those moments, you can see how the whole apartheid system could collapse.

For those already familiar with the history of unarmed resistance in Palestine, Budrus won't present tons of new information.  Visitors to the Occupied Palestinian Territories now have the choice of attending one of a dozen or so protests of the type seen in Budrus on any given Friday.  What the film does do is tell the story of nonviolent resistance in one West Bank village incredibly well.  The filmmakers were there at the right time, and in the right places, and they reveal the transformation of the village through struggle in such an uncomplicated, straightforward way that the film's power doesn't really hit you until some time after you've left the theater.

Budrus is currently playing in film festivals and limited release around the world.  Look for a screening near you here.