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Part of the Fall 2018 Film Series: Contested Spaces
Click here to watch the trailer
From the Los Angeles Times-
As the devastating documentary "The Settlers" demonstrates, ask a simple question and you end up with a complex, confounding series of answers.
Veteran Israeli director Shimon Dotan poses the same basic query — "Are you a settler?" — to residents of the West Bank, and the range of responses is telling.
One person flat out refuses to answer. Another says, "I am in the land of my forefathers." A third prefers the less judgmental word "inhabitant," and a fourth sneers, "That's how the media and leftists define me." Only one man, his eyes ablaze with the joys of zealotry, says, "I am a settler, yes, I love this land, and
I hope to be buried in it.”
...Smart, thorough and thoughtful, this disturbing film unfolds like a slow-motion nightmare that has taken half a century to fully reveal itself, a trenchant examination that deserves to stand next to compelling Israeli documentaries on similar themes, including "The Law in These Parts" and "The Gatekeepers."
Though it's far from the only film to deal with the phenomenon, "Settlers" stands out in terms of the substantial access it obtained to several generations of the movement's leaders, allowing them to lay out religious/philosophical underpinnings in considerable detail. A few dissenting voices are heard, but mostly these people have the floor.
Director
Shimon Dotan
Country of Origin
Israel, France, Germany, Canada
Language
Hebrew, Arabic, English (English Subtitles)
Year/ Length
2016/ 107 min
Presenter
Nathan Spinder