To Die In Jerusalem

121329 original

When the 17 year old Palestinian girl Ayat al-Akharas tied a belt of explosives around her waist and blew herself up on a suicide mission in Jerusalem, Israeli schoolgirl Rachel Levy also died as a victim of the blast. This harrowing documentary delves behind the frenzied media coverage of the event, to juxtapose the story of mutual pain told by the mothers of each of the girls in the aftermath of the event.

Rachel’s mother Abigail vehemently demands attention as the victim's desperate mother, searching for a closure that is doomed to ultimately evade reality. But the emotional core of the film is sourced by unadulterated footage which reveals a rare glimpse into the lives of a Palestinian family, attempting to come to terms with the loss of a daughter they consider a victim of the state. Capturing the tumult of the psyche, the camera focuses on Ayat’s mother who tries to preserve an unsettling sense of pride in her daughter’s fatal actions, but who simultaneously cannot hide her utterly wrenching despair.

Intensity heightens as Abigail makes a tentative trip through border control in her first attempt to meet Ayat's mother. But when police halt the operation to question the film crew, anxieties mount and it seems the longed for meeting is frustratingly unachievable. Culminating in a staggeringly emotive confrontation, To Die in Jerusalem sensitively reveals the complex and differing perspectives of these two powerful female voices, both snared in a web of politics, cultural mediation and devastating pain.