the films must go on

Israeli artists and filmmakers have also fallen victim to the Hamas attacks carried out on 7 October 2023.

Sapir College, one of Israel's largest public universities in the south-east of the country, near the Gaza Strip, was particularly hard hit. Staff and students have been injured, killed and kidnapped in the attacks. All residents had to be evacuated, the region has been a restricted area ever since and the college itself is empty.

With The films must go on, we at JFBB would like to express our sympathy for this place of artistic creation that Sapir College embodied, and offer a public space for cinematic creativity. We hope that one day it can return to the place where it was taught, learnt and lived.

Films by and with directors and protagonists whose lives were shattered on 7 October paint a picture of life on the border as it once was - with all its normality and abnormality.

The programme is curated and presented by Yael Reuveny, a Berlin-based Israeli director and screenwriter who won the 27th JFBB Documentary Film Award with PROMISED LANDS and was a member of the festival's documentary film jury in 2022, as well as JFBB programme directors Lea Wohl von Haselberg and Bernd Buder.

When: Sunday 11 February 7 pm
Where: Krokodil cinema | Greifenhagener Str. 32, 10437 Berlin

Tickets here.

SHELTERS
2019 | Documentary | 15 min

Director/Director: Rachel Albert, Maciej Jankowski
The film deals with the use of private and public shelters as storage rooms and wine cellars in Israel. This, as well as the portraits of the people who rely on these spaces, illustrates the omnipresence and everyday nature of the threat and the "emergency routine" in which Israeli society lives.
Haim Peri, one of the film's protagonists, was abducted by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. At the age of 79 and suffering from a heart condition, Haim confronted the terrorists who invaded his house in Kibbutz Nir Oz and saved the life of his wife Osnat Peri. Haim, a peace activist, was committed, among other things, to transporting children from the Gaza Strip to Israel so that they could receive appropriate medical care.

PEOPLE ASLEEP AND THE WATER AS WELL
2023 | Documentary | 19 Min
Director/ Regie: Rotem Elkayam

Lahcen, a gravedigger in the Jewish cemetery in the heart of Marrakech, is a Muslim who has lived with Jews since childhood. Until the day he dies, Lahcen will continue to open the house of the dead to Jews from around the world.

UNWELL MIND
2020 | Documentary | 38 Min
Director/Regie: Danna Levy

Danna, 28 years old, is the carer of 36-year-old Yael, who is cognitively and intellectually impaired. When they are confronted with difficulties in their respective partnerships, their friendship intensifies and they encourage each other to make momentous decisions.
Yael Keidar is a resident of Be'eri who survived the 7 October massacre by Hamas terrorists. Sami Keidar, Yael's father, was murdered in the attack. Ofra Keidar, Yael's mother, was abducted to Gaza and later found dead under Hamas control.

PARACHUTIST
2022| Animation | 8 Min
Director/ Regie: Daniel Ambaya

The film depicts the life of a downtrodden Ethiopian immigrant family through the eyes of the young boy Eli, who tries to live out his dream of becoming a parachutist by playing with plastic bags.