''Arna's Children'' is a 2004 Dutch-Israeli

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel Danniel. The film's story revolves around a children's theater group in

Jenin Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupied territories, Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administra ...

in the

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

established by Arna Mer-Khamis, the director's mother, an Israeli Jewish political and human rights activist. The film portrays the lives of Arna Mer-Khamis and the children members of the theater including Ala el-Sabagr,

Zakaria Zubeidi Zakaria Muhammad 'Abdelrahman Zubeidi (; other spellings include Zakariyah Zbeidi, Zacharia and Zubaidi; born 1976) is the former Jenin chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. He is considered a "symbol of the Intifada", and was on Israel's most ...

, Daud Zubeidi, Majdi Shadi
Haifa Staiti
Nidal Swetti, Yussef Swetti, Mahmoud Kaneri, Khairia Fakhri and Ashraf Abu-Alheji. The film won "Best Documentary Feature" in the 2004

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

Synopsis

The film combines footage from Arna Mer-Khamis's youth theatre and education activities in Jenin in the 1990s with footage and interviews from the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

. Of the ten former theater children, several would go on to play leading roles in the 2002 Battle of Jenin or otherwise participated in fighting. Two of the former theatre children, Yussef and Nidal, committed a suicide attack in

Hadera Hadera (, ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon plain, Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5 mi) of ...

in 2001, murdering four civilians. A further two of the theatre children, Ala and Ashraf, were killed fighting in Jenin in 2002. Footage of them as children, engaging in the theatre and expressing their emotions and hopes, is abruptly interspersed with footage of them as adults taking up arms, of the aftermath of the attack in Hadera, and of their funerals, as well as interviews with family members and friends.

References

External links

Film websiteCulture Unplugged
* 2004 films 2000s Arabic-language films 2000s Hebrew-language films Documentary films about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Israeli independent films Dutch independent films 2004 documentary films Children's theatre Participant (company) films 2004 independent films 2004 multilingual films Israeli multilingual films Dutch multilingual films Arabic-language Israeli films Palestinian documentary films {{poli-documentary-film-stub