5 DAYS

East Coast Premiere

During five tense and emotional days in August 2005, the Israeli Defense Forces entered the Gaza Strip and removed 8,000 Jewish settlers from their homes. They used varying degrees of force but no violence. They were not welcome-Jews evicting Jews produced an unprecedented degree of internal turmoil and ambivalence.

Working with an IDF spokesperson who also produced the film, director Yoav Shamir became an insider to the evacuation. He followed IDF General Dan Harel as he and his officers planned the operation and their response-which could use only limited physical force-to the settlers' resistance. The film also documents a peaceful resistance movement and goes inside the Jewish settlers' homes to witness their emotional turmoil and their hopes that the settlements would somehow survive.

Shamir has produced a precise and detailed record of the evacuation of the settlements in Gaza that avoids the sensationalism and polemic of much contemporary media coverage of these events. The explosiveness of the situation is evident, yet Shamir focuses on the passions and convictions that motivate that explosiveness rather than on their manifestations. The film neither indicts nor honors either side in the conflict, instead giving a realistic portrayal of the disengagement's ideological complexity and political volatility.

-Caroline Small

DIRECTOR BIO
Yoav Shamir studied documentary production and cinematography at Tel Aviv University. His first film, MARTA AND LUIS (2002) screened at festivals around the world. His second feature, CHECKPOINT (2003), won awards at numerous international film festivals including IDFA and HotDocs. He is currently working on his fourth documentary, IT USED TO BE A GREAT FLAG.

Print Source:
Moshe Levinson, Profile Productions Ltd.
61 Derech Shlomo St.
Tel Aviv, 66089
Israel
+972.54.4232176
l_m@zahav.net.il

6/17 at 10:30 PM

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