Homage to Ram Loevy 

 

Ram Loevy has created some of the most daring and politically subversive films in Israeli TV and cinema. In 1993, he was awarded the Israeli Prize for his lifework. The prize jury pointed to his "persistent struggle to show themes regarded as 'unacceptable,' though they touch on fundamental truths about Israeli society".  

 

Loevy's impressive oeuvre consists of 70 films, both documentary and fiction. In what follows, we present some of his landmark films that radically changed the portrayal of Palestinians on Israeli TV and film screens.

 

Loevy was born in Tel Aviv in 1940, during the British Mandate of Palestine. He made his first film, "I am Ahmad", in 1966 as the film's producer and screenwriter. Since the beginning of the Israeli cinema, until the mid- to late sixties, most films focused on the mythic Jewish-Israeli hero – the sabra (native Israeli) kibbutznik and soldier – often within the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict. "I am Ahmad" was the first Israeli film that had a Palestinian as its protagonist and that portrayed an Arab not as a terrorist or enemy, but as an ordinary individual. Recently, the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School produced a tribute to the film, "The Voice of Ahmad" (2019), composed of short films inspired by this iconic cinematic work.

 

In 1969, Loevy directed "Barricades", a documentary about two families, Jewish and Palestinian, that lost their children in the 1948 War: Shevat family from Haifa and the family of Abu-Muhammed Yehia from the Jalazone refugee camp, originally from the village of 'Anaba. It was the first time that the Jewish-Israeli audience had an opportunity to experience the emotional significance of the Nakba to the Palestinian people. "Barricades" also challenged the prevalent Israeli attitude to the Palestinian refugees and their right of return. The film was shelved for three years and it was broadcast only in 1972. Ayelet Bechar paid tribute to "Barricades" in her short film "Take 3" that will be screened at the festival.

 

Stormy public debate and censored broadcasts accompanied also another Loevy's film, "Khirbet Khizeh" made in 1978. The film, based on S. Yizhar's canonical novella, also goes back to 1948. It will be screened at the festival and you can read more about it on this page below.

 

While "Barricades" portrays families who lived through the war and Nakba, in "Khirbet Khizeh" Loevy turned to the written testimony of a writer who bore witness to their horrors. More than 70 years later, when the disturbing memory of the Nakba has given way to denial and all-pervasive amnesia, these two films keep bearing witness to what happened, sounding the voice of conscience silenced by the cannons, and naming the price we have paid and still pay for it.

Recently, Loevy has decided to refresh our selective memory and bear witness once more with his new film "The Dead of Jaffa" (2019). This time he also wants us to face the present consequences of the Nakba as for the Palestinians it never ended. The film takes place today in Jaffa where stories of a local Palestinian couple, three children from the West Bank, a Jewish policeman, and a British filmmaker intertwine. The drama of their encounters builds up and comes to a fatal finale on a film set reconstructing the 1948 war. Is the tragic end an unfortunate accident or inevitable given the history and current political situation? How can we finally lay to rest the ghosts of the Nakba and envision a better future?