Zero Degrees of Separation (2005)

Director:

Elle Flanders

Writer:

Elle Flanders (writer)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Awards:

1 win

Runtime:

Germany:85 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

Arabic | English | Hebrew

Color:

Color

Company:

Graphic Pictures Inc.

Slanted

This "documentary" was screened at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival followed by a Q&A with the director/producer. From start to finish, it is a one-sided attack on Israel with accusations of land theft, racial discrimination, misogyny, discrimination against Bedouins, anti-homosexuality. The director intersperses grainy video which she says she inherited from her grandparents with her own footage. There is no documentation to back up the outrageous statements, half-truths and glaring omissions of historical background. The background music is jarring, as if to drive home the severity of her claims.

Ezra, the Israeli half of the gay couple, describes the discrimination he experienced of his Arab background by Ashkenazim (European) Jews. Israel is the world's most ethnically diverse country. Over 1,000,000 Arabs, Christians, Druze, Baha'is, Armenians, Vietnamese, Ghanese and other ethnic groups are among Israel's population, including Jews from Yemen, Ethiopia, India and Burma, many of whom were saved from persecution in Arab countries by airlifts. Instead of showing diversity, the director focused her camera on an obscure cult-like group of Jewish mystics.

We first see the separation wall from the ground up, instead of eye-level, making it appear much taller than it is, accompanied by the bold statement: "The Wall is twice the height of the Berlin Wall." According to Wikipedia, (April 2006), the Separation Barrier is about 95% fence and anti-automobile trench and only 5% wall. The film says nothing about flying bullets entering the kitchens of residents in apartment buildings of Jerusalem's neighborhoods which necessitated building a high wall in the first place. Nothing about the thousands of terrorist attacks thwarted by the barrier. In fact, the only mention of "suicide bombers" is from Samira, the Arab half of the lesbian couple.

If Israel is such a horrible country to live in, why don't Edit and Ezra request political asylum in any one of the 22 Arab countries surrounding Israel?