Arna's Children by Juliano Mer-Khamis e Danniel Danniel
(Israel/Netherlands, 2003, 85m)

Comments by Elsa Sertório

Storyline:Arna Mer Khamis comes from a Zionist family, having married with Saliba Khamis, an Israeli Arab, in the decade of 1950. Later, she developed, in the West Bank, alternative methods of education for Palestinian children affected by the Israeli occupation. The theatre group that she founded in Jenin tried to help children expressing their daily frustrations and fears, the anger and bitterness. Arna's son, Juliano, who also worked at the theatre in Jenin, filmed the children during the trial periods of 1989 through 1996. Now, after the Jenin battle, he is returning to the refugee camp in order to find out what happened to them. Alternating images from the past and the present, this documentary film reveals the tragedy and horror of the lives conditioned by the Israeli occupation.
 

Juliano Mer-Khamis (1958-2011): Israeli-Palestinian theatre and cinema actor, director and political activist, son of a Jewish mother and a Palestinian father. In 2006, thanks to the wave of international support triggered by this documentary film, he founded the Freedom Theatre at the Jenin refugee camp (West Bank). He was assassinated in 4 April 2011 in front of the theatre.

Danniel Danniel (1950-): Israeli director and scriptwriter living in the Netherlands since the decade of 1980.

Film with English subtitles