The Sea - a Palestinian and Jewish collaboration

The Sea, directed by Shai Carmeli Pollack, is a film about the Occupation, about the walls that we put up between us, and about how they impact the simple dreams of a child.  The film was produced as a collaboration, between a Jewish director and a Palestinian producer. 

Khaled lives in a village in the West Bank, not far from Ramallah.  At the end of the school year, his class is going on a bus trip to the Mediterranean Sea.  All of the children are excited for this, since going to the beach is not a usual event for them.  On the way, they have to pass through a checkpoint in order to enter Israel. 

Khaled’s name does not appear on the list of those approved to pass through the checkpoint and he is sent back to the village.  Extremely disappointed, he decides to set out on his own. He wakes up in the middle of the night and sneaks out of the house to smuggle himself into Israel.  He experiences many encounters with Jews and Arabs alike who help him along the way. 

Worried about his son, his father, who works without a permit inside Israel, leaves the construction site where he is working, to go find his son, even though the risks of being caught without a permit are troubling. Both father and son encounter some wonderful people along the way.

Some films about the Occupation are hard-hitting, filled with violence and difficult to endure.  This one is different. It provides beautiful insight into a family, especially the life of a 12-year-old boy, and how difficult life can be for Palestinians living in the West Bank. I especially liked the character of Khaled’s grandmother, who has taken upon herself the difficult task of raising the four children since Khaled’s mother died of cancer two years earlier and the father is working to support them at a job inside Israel.

At the Jerusalem Film Festival premiere screening, which was filled with family and friends of the cast and crew, about half Palestinian and half Jewish, the film director said poignantly: “The making of this film, Arabs and Jews working together on the set, gives me a lot of hope.”  It is good to have some hope in these difficult days in Israel!

The Sea (93 minutes) provides a wonderful story. The film is available from the producer at Majdal Films, baheir@gmail.com

Shai Carmeli-Pollack also made Bil'in My Love (2006), one of the best documentaries about Israeli activists helping in the fight against the placement of the Separation Wall separating Palestinians from their lands. I never forgot one hard-hitting line from that film.  Standing on a hilltop at Bil'in in the West Bank, looking out at the horizon where you can catch a glimpse of Tel Aviv in the distance, someone says, You can see Tel Aviv from Bil'in, but you don't see Bil'in from Tel Aviv.  Wow. That was so true.  No one see or cares.