Israeli-born documentary maker is no stranger to criticism, having his film 'Route 181' banned in France.
by Sousan Hammad
Born in Israel to Jewish Uruguayan parents, Eyal Sivan released his first documentary, Aqabet Jaber, about the daily life of refugees in the West Bank's Jordan Valley, in 1987. The film was a success and went on to screen in many international festivals. Sivan continued with filmmaking, using cinema as what he calls a "field of the essay" in the documentary format. In 2004, he released Route 181: Extracts from a Palestinian-Israeli Journey, a collaboration with Palestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi. Route 181 follows Sivan and Khleifi's journey of discovery and exposition from the south to north of Palestine while traveling along the virtual partition line defined in United Nations Resolution 181. It was this work that would eventually be the cause for his marginalisation in France. The film was censored by the French Ministry of Culture and subsequently pulled out of France's largest documentary film festival, Le Festival du Cinema du Reel, held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In a statement released by the Ministry of Culture and the Centre Pompidou, organisers behind the decision to pull the film said: "The film's broadcast on ARTE … had already provoked intense emotion, particularly among those who are alarmed by the rise of anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish statements and acts in France, and who consider that the film's underlying hostility to the existence of Israel may be of a nature to encourage these acts."...[continued]
