Knowledge Is The Beginning (2005)
Part of the UK Jewish Film Festival
| Director: | Paul Smaczny |
|---|---|
| Certificate: | Unknown |
| Length: | |
| Format: | Other |
| Language: | German, Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles |
| Country: |
Winner Emmy Award 2006
World-renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian writer Edward Said have generated controversy and admiration with the founding of their West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999. This documentary follows a unique musical collaboration, dedicated to furthering the cause of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, bringing together young musicians from both sides of the divide: Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Palestinians and Israelis. The film chronicles workshops in Weimar and Seville, Barenboim’s 2004 visit to Ramallah and Jerusalem and highlights of the 2005 European tour.
Integral to the documentary is footage of the orchestra’s co-founder Edward Said, a noted literary critic, scholar and advocate for Palestinian independence. For him the orchestra was “one of the most important things I have done in my life”. For Barenboim, the orchestra is a metaphor for what could be achieved in the Middle East.
Other films in the UK Jewish Film Festival:
22
Film: Live And Become (Va, Vis Et Deviens) (2005)
22 Mar 2007, 7:30 p.m.
An epic story of love, survival and identity. A Christian mother forces her nine-year-old son to declare himself Jewish in order to be included in Operation Moses, the rescue mission staged by Israel to enable the Ethiopian Jewish community to escape the famine of the mid-eighties
24
Film: Be Fruitful And Multiply (2005)
24 Mar 2007, 8 p.m.
How does it feel to have been pregnant or breastfeeding for 25 out of 26 years of your married life? This and other questions are posed openly in this film exposing the consequences of the commandment “Be fruitful and multiply” for religious Jewish women. The film offers a sensitive insight into the lives of women in ultra-orthodox society as it follows the stories of four women in Jerusalem and Brooklyn. Yentel is the key figure who turns from an obedient wife, internalising the strict social code of her society, into an independent woman who rebels against the traditional patriarchal society in which she lives.
24
Film: First Lesson In Peace (2005)
24 Mar 2007, 9:10 p.m.
When Michal, a 6 year old girl, is about to start school, Yoram Honig, her father, decides to write her a letter in the form of a film.
29
Film: Three Mothers (Shalosh Imahot) (2006)
29 Mar 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Alexandria 1942 - King Farouk arrives in person to bless baby triplets, daughters of a wealthy Egyptian-Jewish family. Sixty years later, the turbulent events of these sisters’ extraordinary lives have clouded their relationship with secrets and lies.