Search - Color of Olives, The on DVD

Under siege . . .

Ronald Scheer | Los Angeles | 02/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This documentary by Mexican filmmaker Carolina Rivas tells in microcosm the story of Israel's impact on the lives of ordinary Palestinians. A once-prosperous rural family living outside Tel Aviv has found itself in the path of the security walls being erected by Israel in the wake of suicide bombers and armed resistance. Their house now separated from their olive groves and vegetable gardens paved over for a road serving Israeli military vehicles, they are virtual prisoners within a system of security fences. To get anywhere, the parents and each of their six children must wait sometimes hours for soldiers to unlock gates and let them through. Meanwhile, day or night, their house may be the target of a barrage of rocks thrown, we are told, by youngsters from a nearby Jewish settlement. As represented by the film, it is a war of nerves in which the family hangs on tenaciously to a spot of land that they refuse to surrender.

Rivas' documentary style borrows heavily from the tradition of cinema verite, as she views the action of the film - often long waiting at closed gates - with her camera in what seems to be a concealed position. There is no narration and no talking heads, and we get little explanation of the situation, except for what can be gleaned from printed quotes of family members that appear from time to time on the screen. While the news media dramatize the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians by focusing on bombings, this film gives a different kind of picture by examining the day-to-day lives of noncombatants."