Private

Saverio Constanzo

IndieLisboa 2005 •

Italy, Fiction, 2004, 90′

The family B. is the protagonist of the story. Their house is located halfway between Israeli settlements and an Arab village. The family B. is quite well off and educated. The father Mohammad is a principal in a secondary school. After a gunfight the Israeli army occupies the second floor of the house for security reasons and asks the family to leave the house. Mohammad says no, he does not want to leave, the house is the border of his dignity, loosing it means giving himself and his family forever to the hatred against the Israelis. Mohammad is a dreamer, an active pacifist, a man who insists in seeing in the others the possibility to love and not to hate. But he is also a Palestinian, he lives for his principles and is ready to accept even the most extreme consequences. As soon as the group of Israeli soldiers occupies Mohammad’s house thorough and painful divisions occur within the family. The family splits between those trying to understand the father’s message and those who simply cannot do so or let themselves be attracted by violence. Those able to see, to meet, though just for one second, the enemy’s eyes are the ones who will be saved.