Galilée, au nom des pierres

“As a foreign observer, I have tried to find a way of understanding a little better the complex relationships established over the last few decades between Palestinians and Jews. As both neighbours and enemies, they live in the same territory, each claiming in his own way : “This is my homeland”(…). For my inquiry, I chose the region of Galilee, which has been part of Israel since the 1948 “war of independence” and where the largest Arab minority in the Jewish state is to be found. In our Western imagination, Galilee recalls the Bible. I had been surprised to see to what extent biblical archeology was present in Israeli culture and politics. Here was an excellent line of approach : exploring the correspondence between historical and archeological stratigraphy and the interweaving of the myths and national imaginary worlds of the peoples living side by side in Galilee, and, then, how all that affects the memories and the dreams of the actors in this drama. By taking this direction, I met Mahmoud, an Arab Israeli citizen from Tarshiha in Galilee, and probably the first qualified Palestinian archeologist. His personal history and that of his family is one of my film’s main themes.(…)” (Bernard Mangiante)