He says he cannot trust himself to do the right thing—and that is why he left Israel. The director shares this in a voice-over that runs throughout the film, offering insight into his inner conflicts. Among them is his work as a cameraman for the army, a role he held, on his father’s advice, longer than he now wishes. In an interview with his grandmother, filmed in her home, he probes the gaps in her story. Why do Palestinians not feature in her account of her arrival in Palestine as a place of refuge? Observational shots of demonstrations in Berlin and street scenes in Neukölln are interwoven with photographs from the family archive. The film repeatedly returns to footage from Rothschild’s time in the army—such as an operation in the occupied territories—shot on his personal camera.
With quiet persistence, the director brings political issues—past and present—down to a human scale, making them tangible through everyday observation. In A Jewish Problem, he tentatively traces connections between the Shoah and the suffering of Palestinians displaced in 1948, between the collective traumas on both sides and the conflicts of today.
Text: Susanne Mohr
Presented in coorporation with achtung berlin film festival.
Supporting Film: Scenes From the Divide (Alison Klayman, US 2026, 32 min)