Five Broken Cameras

Emad Burnat lives in the village of Bil'in in the West Bank. When his fourth son Gibreel is born he buys a camera, to film the boy. That same year a separation barrier starts being built across the village's land and the villagers go out to weekly protests. Emad takes the camera to the protests as well. He films for five years. In that time five of his cameras are broken: one by a bullet, one by a fall, one by an impact. Each camera records a period. Gibreel grows, and among the first words he learns are wall, soldier and cartridge. Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi direct. It is a Palestinian, Israeli, French and Dutch co-production. Its structure is the cameras themselves; the narrative divides into five parts and each part is the life of one camera. The footage was shot over five years by one person with no cutting in mind; the documentary was built afterwards from that raw material. It won the directing award at Sundance and was nominated for the Oscar for documentary feature. Its strongest side is time; change in one place is watched without a break for five years. The film puts forward no argument; Emad films his own family and neighbours and does not comment. Its co-director is Israeli, and the partnership became a subject of argument at its screenings. Its limit is viewpoint; the narrative looks from one village and does not give the wider context. Who it is for: viewers who like first hand documentary and political narrative. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, some scenes hard, and the film may be found partisan.