Directed by Ilan Ziv Running time 101 minutes Initial release 1994 | Release date 1994 (1994) Country Israel Director Ilan Ziv | |
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Language Hebrew, Arabic, English | ||
On the Edge of Peace is the first joint Israeli-Palestinian co-production. The documentary film captures a tumultuous year from the perspective of both sides. From the signing of the Oslo Accords to Yasser Arafat’s return to Gaza in 1994, three Palestinians and three Israelis are sent out with camcorders to document their own lives in intimate video diaries.
Summary
Juxtaposing media coverage of watershed events with the localized views of the diarists, the film shows the varied effects of politics on individuals’ lives. In refugee camps, kibbutz settlements and cities, we hear a variety of personal and emotional takes on life under the often-violent shadow of the peace process.
The emotional resonance of this combined personal-political style is never more effective than in the depiction of February 25, 1994 — the day of the Baruch Goldstein massacre. At 3:30 a.m., we see a lone man walking the darkened streets of Gaza’s Rafah refugee camp reminding people of the daily Ramadan fast. At 5:00 a.m., we are in pre-dawn Hebron, listening to the call to prayer. At 6:30 we are surrounded by the eerie morning mist which shrouds Kibbutz Ein Dor. Then we see the morning news and witness the initial reports of Goldstein’s killing of Arab worshippers in a Hebron cave mosque.