9 Star Hotel (2007)

Director:
Ido Haar

IMDB

Synopsis:
Middle Eastern director Ido Haar helms the haunting cinema direct documentary 9 Star Hotel. The work introduces the audience to a cadre of Palestinian men who have built a transient community on the Israeli border, comprised of jerry-built huts and tiny, sarcophagus-like sleeping compartments. The men leave these quarters and systematically cross the border each morning before dawn, to work illegally at construction jobs in Israel - risking their safety and their lives to simply draw a regular income. Throughout, the workers stick close together (Haar suggests that the circumstances actually engender tighter social bonds between them) and evince a surprising sense of humor, tenacity and resilience. Meanwhile, constant hopes for improved circumstances in the future belie their lingering fears of being discovered and shot or arrested by Israeli authorities.

Wall (2004)

Director:
Simone Bitton

IMDB

Synopsis:
In the summer of 2002, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon ordered the construction of a massive security wall, which would clearly define the border between Israel and Palestine and prevent Palestinian forces from easily entering Israeli territory. While the wall follows the nation's official borderlines, it cuts through neighborhoods, gardens, farmlands and others areas, serving as an ugly and divisive reminder of the ongoing conflict and ultimately trapping people on both sides within the barrier. Documentary filmmaker Simone Bitton, a Jew born in Morocco who identifies with both Israeli and Arab cultures, examines the long and costly process of building this fence in Wall (aka Mur), which offers a visual record of the barrier's emergence and features interview with the people who build it, as well as those forced to live in its shadow. Wall was screened as part of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Haschisch (2002)

Director:
Daniel Gräbner

IMDB

Review:
A small village high up in the mountains of Ketama, North Morocco. For centuries the life of the people that live here is intricately tied in with the drug hashish. Hashish as daily labour, hashish as a bartering good, hashish system, hashish as the medium of dreams and hashish as the reason for stagnation. The film sketches a portrait of this life: a look at work and daily family life; the drug; music and landscape as a metaphysical projection surface; the question of freedom in a globalized world; and, at the core of the film, the stories of the people.