Private

Mohammed lives with his wife and five children in a house caught between a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement. Because the house sits at a strategic point, it is occupied by the army; the soldiers take the upper floor, the family has to live on the ground floor and their movement is restricted. Mohammed, a teacher, refuses to leave and tries to hold his family together. Saverio Costanzo built the film from a real incident, staying inside one house and turning nobody into a caricature; what the family goes through and what the soldiers waiting upstairs go through both stay visible. Mohammad Bakri plays Mohammed. It won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2004 and drew attention as Costanzo’s first feature.