Jenin, Jenin

Jenin, Jenin
Directed by	Mohammed Bakri
Written by	Mohammed Bakri
Produced by	Iyad Tahar Samoudi
Edited by	Leandro Pantanella
Release date	2002
Running time	54 min
Country	Palestine
Language	Arabic

Jenin, Jenin is a 2002 controversial documentary produced by Mohammed Bakri, a prominent Arab actor and Israeli citizen, in order to portray what Bakri calls "the Palestinian truth" about the "Battle of Jenin".[1][2]

Bakri dedicated the film to its producer, Iyad Samoudi, who was killed by Israeli soldiers, at al-Yamun in the Jenin Governorate of the West Bank, shortly after filming ended. According to the IDF, Samoudi was an armed member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Film content

The film has no narrator or guide and consists only of interviews with the inhabitants of Jenin edited by the producer. However, the producer includes an interview with himself.

Controversy

Public critics

Dr. David Zangen, Head of Pediatric Endocrinology at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, who was the chief medical officer for the IDF in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield, issued a public statement titled Seven Lies About Jenin, giving his personal accounts about his visit to a private premiere screening of the film at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.

In his statement, he cited 7 major discrepancies he had hoped to raise in front of the viewers who denied him the possibility to get past the second point. He claimed Bakri has skillfully made a crude, albeit well-done, manipulation that it is difficult not to be drawn into the created distorted picture; and that he was amazed that the audience was not willing to hear his own accounts, a person who had physically been there. It should be noted that the version distributed in the English language is modified from the original movie, and some of the problematic scenes Zangen pointed on were omitted.

Defamation law suit

Five Israeli reserve soldiers who served in Jenin filed suit against Bakri for defamation arguing that the movie had sullied their good names.

Banning and unbanning

After a few screenings, the film was banned by the Israeli Film Ratings Board on the premise that it was libelous and might offend the public; a decision which was overturned by the Supreme Court of Israel.

According to Supreme Court Judge Dalia Dorner: "The fact that the film includes lies is not enough to justify a ban." The judge also quoted Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed (he: מורה נבוכים), Part 1, Chapter 2, "And with intellect shall distinguish the man, between the truth and the false."

Before the Supreme Court decision was made, Bakri contested the screening of a counter-response documentary "The Road to Jenin", made by Pierre Rehov[3][4], and the court rejected his request under the statement that regardless of the claim about the connection between the films, there is no legal basis to deny the screening of the film.[5]

The Supreme Court's ruling was stayed on appeal, but in August 2004 the Court, which described the film as a "propagandistic lie", reaffirmed the overturning of the ban, stating that film board does not have "a monopoly over truth".

The film Jenin, Jenin has been shown at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque in Israel.

Awards and nominations

It was awarded Best Film at the Carthage International Film Festival and International Prize for Mediterranean Documentary Filmmaking & Reporting.

External links

• Jenin, Jenin at IMDb
• Jenin, Jenin, distrubutor's site
• Jenin, Jenin at Rotten Tomatoes