Aqabat-Jaber: Passing through

Aqabat-Jaber is one of the sixty Palestinian refugee camps built in the Middle East by the un at the beginning of the 1950s. It is the biggest camp in the Middle East, situated some 3 kilometers south of Jericho. the majority of its 65,000 inhabitants came from those villages in central Palestine that were destroyed in 1948. The 1967 war pushed 95% of that population across the banks of the river Jordan. the traces of war and the effects of erosion by the desert accentuate the contrasts between the abandoned refugees and the huts that they still occupy, and make Aqabat-Jaber look like a ghost town. filmed in 1987, a few months before the Intifada, this film tells the story of a disinherited generation brought up on the nostalgia of places they never knew and which no longer exist. the story of a temporary solution that became a permanent way of life. this film is about a ghost town, fed on nostalgia and memories.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Script: Eyal Sivan, with the collaboration of Noa Gedy
Cinematography: Nurith Aviv, Raymond Grosjean
Editing: Ruth Schell
Sound: Remy Attal
Production: Momento distribution Ltd., France, Τ.+33 1 4366 2524 contact@momento-films.comwww.momento-production.com
Format: DigiBeta Color
Production Country: France
Production Year: 1987
Duration: 81
Contact: Momento distribution Ltd., France Armelle Laborie Τ. +33 1 4366 2524 contact@momento-films.com www.momento-production.com
1st Jury Prize - Cinema du Reel 1987, Paris
Golden Crown – Festikon 1988, Amsterdam 
Air France & Radio France Prize - Belfort Film Festival 1988, France 
Jury Prize, Social-Political Section - oakland IFF 1988, California 
Jury Special mention - Internationale Filmwoche mannheim 1988, Germany

Eyal Sivan

Eyal Sivan was born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel, and grew up in Jerusalem. After working as a professional fashion photographer in Tel Aviv, he left Israel in 1985 and settled in Paris. Ever since, he has been splitting his time between Europe and Israel. Known for his controversial films, he has directed more than 10 political documentaries, which have won awards worldwide, and produced many others. His body of work has been screened and garnered distinctions at prestigious international festivals. Apart from theatrical releases and TV broadcasts, his films are regularly screened in major art shows around the world. He publishes papers and essays and gives lectures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, documentary filmmaking and ethics, political crimes, the political use of memory, genocide and issues of representation, etc. He is the founder and the artistic director of the Paris-based documentary film production company momento! and the film distribution agency Scalpel. He is the founder and Chief Editor of South Cinema Notebooks - a journal of cinema and political criticism, edited by the Sapir Academic College in Israel where he regularly lectures. He is member of the editorial board of the Paris based publishing house La Fabrique. In the last years, Sivan was Reader (associate professor) in Media Production at the school of Arts and Digital Industries (ADI), at the University of East London (UEL) were he was co-leading the MA program in Film, video and new media. Currently, he is an Honorary Fellow at University of Exeter UK, he is teaching at the Master's program in Film at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.

Filmography

1987 Aqabat-Jaber, Passing Through 1990 Izkor, Slaves of memory
1991 Israland (TV)
1993 Itgaber, He Will overcome
1994 Jerusalem(s), Borderline Syndrome 1995 Aqabat-Jaber, Peace with Νo Return?
1996 Itsembatsemba, Rwanda οne Genocide Later (short)
1997 Burundi, under Terror (short)
1999 The Specialist, Portrait of a modern Criminal
2001 On the Top of the Descent (short) 2003 Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (co-direction)
2004 I Love You All (co-direction)
2005 Faces of the Fallen (TV)
2007 Citizens K, the Twin Brothers (TV)
2009 Jaffa, the Orange’s Clockwork
2012 Common State, Potential Conversation (1)