Dispossessed
Israeli documentary spotlights the
plight of illegal Palestinian laborers.
Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News
workers with whom they share a make-
shift, rough-hewn camp. It's an illegal
settlement, essentially, an irony that will
rom Mexico to Turkey to the
not escape some viewers.
Philippines to the West Bank,
9 Star Hotel alternates between the
tens of thousands of people
Palestinians' exhausting work in Modi'in
leave their homes every year seeking
during the day and their evenings at the
menial jobs in developed countries.
encampment spent making dinner over
They are nearly always propelled
a fire, carrying on homesick conversa-
by economic necessity, but all
tions and keeping an eye
those individual decisions have
Abo ye:
peeled for the border police
an aggregate political effect. One
A s cene from
or the army.
consequence is that pundits and
9 S tar Hotel
It's a difficult, spirit-crush-
politicians make points often by
ing life that requires excep-
misrepresenting the reality of poor
tional sacrifices and leaves
(and often illegal) immigrants' lives.
no margin for error. Trying to evade the
In his unvarnished documentary 9
police, Ahmed trips and injures his foot.
Star Hotel, Israeli filmmaker Ido Haar
This is catastrophic, for Ahmed is not
goes beyond the headlines, the speeches
only the sole breadwinner in his family:
and the propaganda to shine a stark light He's about to get married and start a
on a few illegal Palestinian laborers. With new family.
no editorializing but with unmistakable
What makes 9 Star Hotel so effective
sympathy, Haar provides a rare glimpse
is that it is shot entirely from the point
of Israel that will nonetheless strike
of view of the Palestinians. We never
many Americans as oddly familiar.
see the bosses who avail themselves of
The setting is Modi'in, a planned city
their cheap labor or the Israeli families
around 20 miles southeast of Tel Aviv
and office workers who occupy the
and roughly the same distance west of
finished buildings. For once, the tables
Jerusalem. The well-known architect
are turned; usually it is the Palestinian
Moshe Safdie designed the concrete
workers who are invisible.
burg, which began going up in the early
The 50-minute film, which played a
'90s.
few Jewish festivals and received a New
Palestinians were employed to do
York theatrical release, is more con-
the construction work, and they would
cerned (to the degree that any Israeli
commute to the site from their homes
documentary can be) with social reality
in the West Bank. But in the wake of
than a political agenda. Its subjects — as
the second intifada, Israel tightened
the border police whom we occasionally
the border and drastically reduced the
glimpse or overhear recognize — are
number of Palestinians allowed through
not terrorists or even activists.
checkpoints.
They are simply ordinary people try-
As the film begins, on the cusp of
ing to get by. There are no heroes, no vil-
winter, the construction of Modi'in
lains and, for the viewer, no catharsis. I
continues apace. Palestinian laborers
are still employed by Israeli contractors.
However, because they don't have work
permits and can't cross freely into Israel,
9 Star Hotel airs nationwide 10 p.m.
dozens live in the country illegally, just a
Tuesday, July 22, as part of PBS's
few kilometers away in the rock-strewn
summer documentary series P.O.V.
hills.
(check local listings). On Detroit
The film focuses on Ahmed and
Public Television-Channel 56, it can
Muhammad and the small group of co-
be seen 11:30 p.m. Sunday, July 27.
F
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July 17
A
2008 C11