The Films

RAGING DOVE

Bruising and illuminating documentary  | New York Times Film Review

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A small news item in the back-pages of a local Israeli newspaper reported: a world champion boxer, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, defeated only by the flags he has waved upon victory (first Israeli, then Palestinian) is trying to make a comeback in the Middle East.

Curiosity led director Duki Dror all the way to a horse ranch n Eastern Tennessee to meet the man behind the story: Johar Abu Lashin. Immediately, Dror was struck by Abu Lashin's inner contradictions—sensitive and vulnerable yet tough and volatile, exuding repressed pain and not-so-repressed anger. Johar Abu Lashin was consumed by drama: in his personal life, in his public life, in his past, and it wasn't hard to guess back then—in his future.

Raging Dove is first of all the story of an individual, a man's trajectory: his ups and downs, his struggle to overcome, triumph, succeed, or at least not fail. But it is also representative of the larger predicament in which the 1 million Palestinian Israeli citizens find themselves. The descendents of those who, having lost their homeland in 1948, remained within the confines of a newly established state which did not define itself as theirs, and rendered them a minority in their own country.

Johar Abu Lashin is a Palestinian by birth, an Israeli by circumstance, and an American by choice (though by and large Palestinians regard him as a collaborator, Israelis as an enemy, and Americans as a foreigner). As such, not only are none of these identities complete, they also tear him apart. A man in constant battle with himself, the only place where he truly feels whole, or at home, is in the ring.

Awarded "Best Documentary" at the 2002 DocAviv International Documentary Film Festival, Raging Dove is but the latest of numerous films in which Dror, an Israeli Jew of Iraqi origin, takes on the complexities of "Jewish" and "Arab" identity.

THE JOURNEY OF VAAN NGUYEN

Among the strongest of themes of a globally conscious cinema is this heartbreaking new documentary | Los Angeles Times Film Review

Hoiami Nguyen never imagined that he would end up so far from his home village of Bong Son in central Vietnam. Political circumstances and the roulette of life have washed him to the shores of Israel. The penniless Vietnamese refugee became a father of 5 Hebrew speaking Israeli daughters. His daughter - Vaan, describes her parents' ordeal using a razor sharp language in her blog. She feels trapped in circles of identity that will never meet. Caught between her wild and stormy Israeli spirit and the expectations to be modest and obedient Vietnamese at home, there is unbridgeable abyss. When her father returns to his family in Vietnam, Vaan finds herself absorbed into his tragic story - a cruel tale of loss and survival. Hoimai's dream of return sends Vaan to look for a brighter future in the new-old country. She joins him in trying to reclaim the lands of the family, in the remote village at the heart of the Vietnamese jungle.

The Journey of Vaan Nguyen has premiered at the Asian-American Film Festival in San Francisco, it won the Remi Award at Houston Worldfest, and showcased in more than 30 festivals world-wide.

MY FANTASIA

Duki Dror employs his highly original documentary style to reveal the painful story of his family immigration to Israel and the racism of the Ashkenazi society they found there | Hadassah Magazine

The three Darwish brothers, who immigrated from Iraq to Israel in the 50's, established the family factory "Fantasia" - a menorah factory. For a time period of 50 years they designed, manufactured and shipped Chanukah menorahs for the entire world and now...the family factory is about to close down.

From this point in time, the director, who is the son of the youngest brother, is starting to embark on a journey that unravels the history of his family, going back 100 years. The story weaves memories from Iraq and Israel – two homelands, two languages, two identities, two enemies. The director is trying to reconstruct the narrative of his family, a narrative that has disappeared in the silence and shame that followed the family move to Israel. The father's silence is finally broken by the director's relentless inquiries, which reveal a story about five lost years of his father in the Iraqi prison.