Ma'loul is a Palestinian village in Galilee. In 1948, it was destroyed by the Israeli armed forces and its inhabitants expelled. The former inhabitants are only allowed to visit once a year, on the anniversary of Israel's independence, and have developed a new tradition: they have a picnic on the very site of the destroyed village.

Since the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948, countless Palestinian villages have been erased from the map. Ma'Loul Celebrates Its Destruction uses poignant images of bombardments, destroyed buildings, and disfigured people to illustrate this. All that remains are ruins, bearing silent witness in the landscape. Ma'Loul, just west of Nazareth, is one such ruined village. It was inhabited principally by Palestinian Christians, who were forced to leave in 1948 during the Israeli War of Independence. A detailed painting still bears testimony to the existence of the village, which had seen Jewish, Roman, Ottoman, and Palestinian rulers come and go since ancient times. But Ma'Loul also lives on in the memories of its former - now elderly - inhabitants, who tell the story of exactly what happened. We get another perspective from a Palestinian school teacher, who explains to her young students why in the wake of World War II, the Jewish people had such an urgent need for their own nation, a place where they could feel safe. A strikingly mild assessment of the occupier, whom the teacher sees as a closely related brother people. An older man considers it unjustifiable that the Palestinians have become the indirect victims of the Nazi terror, in which they played no part whatsoever. In his mind, "We are the real children of Israel."

a film by Michel Khleifi

Palestine/Belgium, 1985, colour, video, 30 min

Director : Michel Khleifi
Photography : Yves Vander Meeren
Editing : Monique Riesling, Dominique Loreau
Sound : Ricardo Castro
Production : Perrine Humblet, Michel Khleifi



FESTIVALS

2009 | IDFA | Rotterdam | http://www.idfa.nl
* Selection [Eyal Sivan presents Top 10 at IDFA 2009]