Five Broken Cameras
Tags: violence, murder

Plot synopsis:
There are five cameras — each with its own story. When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born in 2005, self-taught cameraman Emad Burnat, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. At the same time in his village of Bil’in, the Israelis begin bulldozing village olive groves to build a barrier to separate Bil'in from the Jewish Settlement Modi'in Illit. The barrier's route cuts off 60% of Bil'in farmland and the villagers resist this seizure of more of their land by the settlers.
During the next year, Burnat films this struggle, which is led by two of his best friends including his brother Iyad, while at the same time recording the growth of his son. Very soon, these events begin to affect his family and his own life. Emad films the Army and Police beating and arresting villagers and activists who come to support them. Settlers destroy Palestinian olive trees and attack Burnat when he tries to film them. The Army raids the village in the middle of the night to arrest children. He, his friends, and brothers are arrested or shot; some are killed. Each camera used to document these events is shot or smashed.
Eventually, in 2009, Burnat approaches Guy Davidi – an Israeli filmmaker and together, from these five broken cameras and the stories that they represent, these two filmmakers create the film.

Review: Hundreds of villages were ethnically cleansed, and several of them today have Israeli Jews living in the old houses owned by Palestinians (not having paid for them of course).
The film shows the Israeli occupation through the eyes of a small village and its people from 2005 to 2010.
It's a very honest film that depicts the struggle the Palestinians live through every day being treated like animals and sometimes worse by the young Israeli soldiers who daily harasses them.
This is a very important film that I recommend to everybody that wishes to see how daily life is like on occupied territories in Palestine..
And in the noise of all the marketing campaigns that try to target the greater population to adopt the next best product or service, it is becoming more difficult to be influenced by perspectives that are not mainstream but at the same time important in helping people see what it means to be human, in its challenges and struggles of life.
His documentary 5 Broken Cameras brings about a view of his life that is rarely ever made conscious in the mainstream lives of the western world.
Although many people have heard about the long withstanding history of Israeli-Palistenian conflict over the West Bank, the documentary brings about a quality of humanity to the conflict through a first person perspective of using non-violence protest strategies to prevent Israeli developer's from building onto the land of their village of Bil'in.
Through six years worth of film, Emad is able to show a personable and affective-filled battle of many people in his village that risk their lives in protecting the land of their people.
Emad has used his five broken cameras to give a voice to the village people of Bil'in and is helping people understand that not everyone in this world has stability even in the basic needs of food and shelter.
Being able to see even this one perspective, is likely to help people realize that there are more important issues at hand in the world other than obtaining the latest gadget or wearing the latest fashion trend.
It is therefore critical that people understand the power they possess living in the western world and how they can use it to give a voice to those who need help and do not have a voice..
I admire the bravery of this Palestinian man in getting his message across despite so many hardships.Tell me why would the Israelis shoot at the unarmed Palestinians with live ammunition - particularly when they're on the Palestinian side of the fence?Bravo Emad!
Emad Burnat's documentary about the on-the-ground reality for the people inside the West Bank is a very disturbing portrait of life under military occupation.
Indeed, the settlers and army do some absolutely evil things, such as burning an olive tree."5 Broken Cameras" (whose title refers to the different cameras that Burnat had to use after the army kept breaking them) is a documentary that everyone should see.
I watched this documentary and had a total change in my view and support of Israel.
This documentary taken by Emad, who live in Bil'in, near the border of Israeli settlement, with his family.
Although some rabbis have protested against these uproarious excesses (raucous stomping and deafening ratcheting), considering them to be a disturbance of public worship, nevertheless, these two customs in particular, have continued to be universally carried out in almost all Synagogues on Purim.Just a thought ?!I wonder if during the Oscars, the Zionists of Hollywood plan to conduct an 'L.A. Festival of Burning', wherein all copies of the "Un-Israeli" film '5 Broken Cameras' will be incinerated, not unlike that conducted by the Nazis in May of 1933, during which upwards of 25,000 volumes of "Un-German" books (predominantly Jewish) were burned ?!Or worse yet, publicly humiliate themselves during the announcement of the film's nomination for an Oscar award, by stomping their feet and twirling permitted Ra'ashans, in a feeble attempt to 'Blot It Out'?!After all, just the other day, they did attempt to prevent the film-maker Emad Burnat, together with his wife and 8 year old son, from attending, by way of harassment and intimidation at the hands of Immigration Officials at L.A.X.Perhaps, it was because a 'Film' or even a 'Broken Camera' in the hands of a Palestinian now constitutes a potential 'Terrorist Threat' ?!.
5 Broken Cameras (2011) is a Palestinian documentary film directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi.
The movie is narrated by Emad Burnat, who films life and strife in his village in the occupied West Bank.Living in an occupied territory will always be frustrating and, at times, humiliating.
(The "settlements" look like large, fortress-like, apartment complexes.)Although we have all seen footage of Palestinians throwing rocks, and Israeli soldiers responding with teargas and rubber bullets, Burnat films less dramatic instances of nonviolent resistance by Palestinian villagers.
(Some of the cameras were purposely destroyed, while others were hit by rubber bullets.)Whatever your position is about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it's useful to see a film that presents the Palestinian perspective.
A personal and intimate portrait of the progressing encroaching of Palestinian land by the Israeli state and their Zionist cavaliers, is filmed over a period of several years.
Starting in 2005, camera after camera, "5 Broken Cameras" is frank in its portraying of the startling injustice that has beholden an entire populace.A clear indictment of Israel as a country as well as the crazy people who claim right to the land based on biblical scripture, the olive farmer Emad Burnat films his side of the story.
this documentary was a true and honest eyes to what really happening in the occupied territories by the Zions in Palestine, the events show how the people of the small village Bil'in suffered by the army of the Zions that burned and killed and brook the laws, not humans laws, not world's laws, but them own laws.
it has a very real touching scenes witch can make a one shed the tears without he knows, when I watched those scenes and slices from lives of real people I seen those Zions as really they are, not what their press and media whas trying to show us every day in every movie we see.
Fortunately, that mystery is solved instantaneously when you find out the film maker's journey through a Palestinian's point of view about the erecting of Israeli wall.
If you are a documentary lover, you will enjoy this movie, even if you are not - and just curious about Palestinian life - it's worth a look.
Two of the five documentary films competing for the Academy Awards ('Oscars') that will be distributed a few days from now deal with the conflict between Jews and Arabs, between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land.
This is a good thing, and for the Israeli audiences both movies are highly relevant, as they show different aspects and different perspective of the conflict.
There are many differences of course in styles, approaches, characters but the reality is the same, a complex reality with many pieces of puzzle and the more you know, the better.The concept and the story of the making of '5 Broken Cameras' is pretty unusual.
Israeli film-maker Guy Davidi met in 2005 Emad Burat, a Palestinian inhabitant of the village of Bil'in.
This place is well known in the area because the wall of separation between Israel and the Palestinian territories passes in the neighborhood, separating inhabitants from their fields and orchards, and this led to several lawsuits and permanent protests and confrontations with the army some of which turned violent, which were also widely covered by the Israeli and international press and TV.
Emad received in 2005 a first camera from Davidi, a camera which covered not only the incidents around the construction of the wall, but also the life of the inhabitants and of the family, the permanent tension between occupation, protests and the need to run normal lives.
This is a well-made documentary that allows you to experience the life of Palestinian villagers under the unjust Israeli occupation.
What touched me the most about this film was the bravery of these unarmed Palestinians--every man, every woman and every child--who stand up day after day to the illegal confiscation of their farm land,their olive trees, and to the soldiers who support usurping settlers and shoot live and rubber ammunition at unarmed protesters.
This is about Israeli becoming violent masters over the poor and helpless Palestinians in a small village which the extremists in power have decided to turn into a new Jewish settlement area.
All Israeli cultivated and reasonable people should watch it, because one day no one will be able to say: we didn't know...
"5 Broken Cameras won the World Cinema Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
The story of the 5 cameras is a film pictured by a Palestinian who is violently fighting Israel, each and every weekend.Each of the 5 cameras was broken in the midst of a brutal attack on the peaceful Israeli soldiers that just stand there quietly and try to avoid any response to the videotaped provocations.
The director is taking the camera to a provocation against the peaceful soldiers, the Palestinians get violence, the army is acting with no choice, and the camera is being broken.
I suffered a lot just to see how it ends, but for nothing.The video cameras and the film was supported by the European Union, which is providing finance to anti-Israeli activities worldwide and specifically in Israel, taking a position which is totally one sided in this conflict.I praise the Israeli soldiers, which are standing against a well- financed violent mob, full of hatred.
Even facing this tough situation there are not fast on shooting, and they provide human care to any human been, even if he's on the other side of the front, like the director that was evacuated to an Israeli hospital after having a self-made accident where he was confronting the soldiers.
This movie takes a very biased look on the conflict, which is full of hate to Israel.
Its so wonderful to see one story come out of palestine, that is not blocked, censored or tainted by the israeli propoganda machine about the daily struggles of an oppressed people in the 21st century.
Emad Burnat is a Palestinian farmer living in Bil'in, a small village close to the West Bank.
Along with his son's childhood he captures the building of a wall that cuts through the village's olive groves and the violence that befalls the villagers as they use nonviolent protest against the taking of their land by the Israeli government.
The title of the documentary gets its name from the fact that Burnat has five different cameras destroyed in one way or another by Israeli soldiers as he films what is happening to his village.
Were it not for movies like this one that show what greed and disregard for human life is really all about, one might reasonably argue that the State of Israel possibly has some rights in the area that was formerly all Palestine.This movie is really about the rapacious and greedy nature of Israel and its determination to take over lands that it was never given any mandate to occupy; in this case the West Bank.This is s story in documentary and indisputably factual style of the brutality which is daily meted out to the people of Palestine who have had their lands conquered by a force that is pretty well irresistible to them, the Israeli Army.
It is a story of the struggle of basically defenceless people against an occupation of their lands that they have no hope of winning in the absence of concerted public opinion from the world outside the occupied territories.
Tragically, that is the only possible hope that the Palestinian people have of resisting the further rape and occupation of their traditional lands.
How very ironic that a people who suffered terribly under the Nazis during WWII should treat the people of Palestine in much the same way that they were themselves treated by the Nazis.This movie demonstrates, in the most graphic way possible, the struggle and sacrifice of a people who have been oppressed by the State of Israel and the Israeli Army since 1967.
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is against international law and in blatant defiance and disregard of the United Nations and its many resolutions over the last 49 years.See this movie please and know that it is a true portrayal of the struggle of the Palestinian people against naked aggression and the infliction of death and injury, most disproportionately in the face of the peaceful protests of these Palestinians.
This movie is a true story about the hardships of Palestinians living in a city bordering Israel.
The story depicts the atrocities of the Israeli military and citizens towards the Palestinians, and the courage, bravery and the dexterity of the Palestinian people who protest against the cages which Israel has created around them, treating them like animals.The story revolves one man, protecting his beautiful family consisting of his wife and small children, while pursuing his passion of videography..
a PERSONAL story of a man and his village protesting a wall.
This is a film about the personal story of man named Emad and his experience protesting in Bil'in, a small village in the West Bank.
I think the film would have suffered from it.Because of the lack of context, a politically sharp-eyed, skeptical and unsettled viewer (unsettled on the Israel-Palestine conflict) like myself need to take some of the film with a grain of salt.
Regardless of your position on the struggle, this kind of footage should make you angry.I think the film is definitely worth watching, not because it's an "unbiased" (whatever that means) view of a political struggle, but precisely because it is biased.
This extraordinary documentary depicts a village's struggle against an ever-encroaching Israeli settlement, and the security barrier which deprives them of half their land.
Not just tear-gas; one casually shocking moment witnesses a Palestinian prisoner being shot in the leg by his Israeli captor, with other soldiers standing by his side.
The film is co-directed by an Israeli, and it's claim to greatness lies in its often implicit depiction of the inextricable entwinement of Palestinian and Israeli lives.
It starts with Palestinians protesting and "yelling loudly" at the Israeli soldiers.
I started watching this movie knowing only that it was going to be about dissidents protesting or fighting back against Israeli people and military.
The villagers start protesting every Friday, and the narrator starts filming it and other local events involving Israelis.So with that in mind, at first I felt like the movie is biased and leading.
At one point early on the narrator says "Gibreel's first words were a joyous event" or something like that, and then the next thing shown is his son Gibreel saying "wall" (referring to the Israeli-built barrier around the narrator's village) while walking outside near the wall...except in the same scene the son is speaking several other words...i felt like that is leading the viewer when that was almost definitely not when Gibreel spoke his first words.But then the thoughts of bias give way to the shocking events that take place during the film.
If you know about the stuff that goes on over there involving Israel and the occupied territories, it isn't surprising per se...Israel is so hated over there...but seeing several people shot, and at least one killed on camera is pretty intense.I'd rather not pick sides on what is right or wrong in the actions that take place, because although the narrator claims they are non-violent there are many instances of rocks being thrown at people and especially cars...so many rocks are thrown at the cars at the same time in one moment that you can really see how much the Israelis are hated by a lot of the local people...and who knows what isn't shown in the movie.Instead I'll just say that this is a very interesting documentary and if you are interested in that area of the world, or if you just enjoy seeing a part of the world you don't normally get a glimpse of, I highly recommend checking this documentary out..
I tell this because 5 Broken Cameras, while it is a heart-breaking and harrowing look at the oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli army, left me with questions about it's veracity as a documentary.
Another problem I had with this movie was the discrepancy between being told that the Bil'in demonstrators are nonviolent and later seeing them throw rocks at an Israeli army truck.
Just another PLO/PA movie showing an anti-Israeli viewpoint while avoiding any criticism of the PLO/PA and its lack of any effort at even trying to get along with the Government of Israel and its Jews.
Luckily, he is an Israeli, because Arab film makers who show things like 5 Broken Cameras get killed.
It would have been better had the film shown what was happening in the area when all the cameras were broken.
It is hard not to notice that the creator of this movie decided not to simply document the state of his life, but to create a propaganda film for the Palestinian side regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict.
This film captures how that is experienced by the rural villagers -- with no understanding of the urban view, or understanding of how to deal with it, except to see it as a violation that requires resistance.Rather besides the filmmaker's story is what it portends for later: he brings his three-year-old to the barrier demonstrations, which we have already seen to become dangerous; he frames perception of the police as life-threatening outsiders; he frames the whole narrative of his sons' lives in terms of what indignities Israel was perpetrating.
I'm pretty neutral on many political issues and like watching documentaries from different parts of the world.