Educational Media Reviews Online

This spare documentary about the difficulties seeking medical treatment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Jenin Refugee Camp is based on the experiences of one of the creators of the film, Juliana Fredman. She spent a summer volunteering on the ambulances of the Red Crescent Society. (The Red Crescent is the counterpart of the Red Cross, and is present in many Islamic countries).

This production has no music, the simplest of maps, and the production is more like a home movie, or cinéma vérité, than the polished documentaries that we are used to seeing.

However, it is an important and powerful film. The story is told through the voices of people seeking medical treatment (including kidney dialysis and chemotherapy), and those trying to deliver it, and the obstacles they encounter by being in an occupied territory.

NPR fans may remember when Ray Suarez was host of the program Talk of the Nation. He was interviewed when he left the program in 1999, after 6 years, about his experiences as the host. I distinctly remember him saying that the two most contentious issues the program dealt with were the Israeli-Palestinian situation and abortion. Both topics were sure to bring heated, emotional discussions. Nine years later the Israeli-Palestinian is even more complicated, and at least in my community, efforts at discussions presenting all sides are opposed.

That is why this film makes an important contribution. It will be most directly useful to those studying the Palestinians, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the viewpoint of the suffering of the Palestinians. Viewers will learn about a land that is far away, and a people whose dress, language and religion are different than what Americans are familiar with. This work will be a useful addition to those libraries working diligently to have their collection present all sides of an issue. And it will also be useful for classroom discussion on balance in the media, or global health care disparities, and for those who are studying Arabic (subtitles are provided when the speakers are Arabic).