Everyday Activist - The Wall (2017)

Posted on Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 07:00 AM

The Wall (2017)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

I originally watched this film last year for the 18th Calgary International Film Festival 2017. Given its topic of the middle east and the quality of the animation, I thought for sure this one would be nominated for an Oscar in at least the full length animation category, though it was not to be. I sent the film’s screening information to Calgary author, Marcello DiCintio, who has not only written extensively about the Israeli/Palestine conflict, but has documented the effects walls have on various people around the world in his 2012 book Walls: Travels Along the Barricades. His recent book, Pay No Heed to the Rockets, talks about everyday life in Palestine. Much like Sir David Hare, featured in The Wall, the Middle East chose him to tell its story through various lenses.

Cam Christiansen’s use of animation captures how surreal the entire conflict seems as David Hare interviews people and experiences life on both sides of the wall. When he talks to the Israelis, I can’t help but recall a movie Censored Voices about young soldiers in 1967 recording their experiences on tape and reviewed as older men and another movie I had reviewed Tinghir-Jerusalem: Echoes from the Mellah, where even today Jewish settlers are incentivized move into tacky condos to secure the Jewish claim to the land, because those films support the Israeli paradox that novelist, David Grossman explains. “Israel seems powerful and aggressive, yet to itself it seems weak and frail. Israel has no confidence in its own survival.”

On the Palestine side, the wall has destroyed a way of life, using checkpoints to make it difficult for farmers to access their land. Ancient trees and farmlands were removed and excavated to accommodate the wall, causing farmers to feel that it was less about security and more about a land grab. In addition to the loss of farmland, all the beautiful beaches are hidden behind the wall. True, Israel is safer from suicide bombers, but now they are vulnerable to missile attacks.

At the end of the film Hare pays special tribute to the graffiti that decorates the wall, reminiscing about the Berlin Wall, hoping that one day this one dividing Palestine and Israel will meet the same fate. Someone had spray painted Ctrl+ Alt+Del. If only taking it down could be so simple.

Calgary Showtimes:  Wall, The (2017) >