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1/4
MY SO-CALLED ENEMY
2010 / 89 mins
DIRECTOR
Lisa Gossels
Spanning seven years, My So-Called Enemy follows six Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls committed to justice and mutual understanding after participating in a cross-cultural women’s leadership program.
In the spirit of Michael Apted’s 7 UP SERIES, the award-winning MY SO-CALLED ENEMY has been praised as “moving, powerful, intelligent and brave” (The Nation) and “a mesmerizing, eye-opening film that shows the true power of friendship and empathy to conquer political boundaries.” (Teen Voices)
Spanning seven years, MY SO-CALLED ENEMY follows six Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls committed to justice and mutual understanding after participating in a cross-cultural women’s leadership program called Building Bridges for Peace. This heart and mind-opening film, from Emmy® Award-winning director Lisa Gossels (THE CHILDREN OF CHABANNES), documents how the young women’s transformative experience of knowing their “enemies” as human beings in the United States meets with the realities of their lives back home in the Middle East. Through the coming-of-age narratives of Adi, Gal, Hanin, Inas, Rawan and Rezan, audiences see how creating relationships across political, racial, religious, cultural and physical divides are first steps towards resolving conflict. MY SO-CALLED ENEMY presents the complexities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through a human lens – and the possibility and hope that come from listening to each other’s stories.
A film about building bridges of understanding in our own communities, MY SO-CALLED ENEMY celebrates diversity and inclusion, provides a platform for multi-faith and multi-cultural understanding and addresses issues of identity and “othering.”
PRESS
"An insightful, moving, important film… Extraordinary."
– The Huffington Post
"The teenage girls who make such compelling protagonists in My So-Called Enemy… offer inspiring examples of reconciliation in that embattled region."
– The Washington Post
"If indeed, these women are tomorrow’s leaders in the Middle East, the future of the area is much brighter."
– Women’s Voices for Change
"A provocative, balanced film that offers unexpected hope for resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict."
– Washington City Paper
"The greatest success of the film is its ability to remain grounded and balanced. Gossels did a wonderful job focusing on a wide range of thinkers, and not limiting herself to one perspective… It was exactly the type of footage – of frustration and doubt – that served as the sobering theme, and also as the triumph of the film."
– Moment Magazine
"In order to reach peace, there must be some opportunity to break down the symbolic walls standing between the Self and the Other. As Gossels and the six appealingly emotional, sensitive, intelligent and independent women she profiled on film well know, peacemaking is not much of a paradox after all."
– Ha’aretz
SELECT FESTIVALS
AFI Docs Fest 2010
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2010
Hamptons International Film Festival 2010
Woodstock Film Festival 2010
Boston Jewish Film Festival 2010
New York Jewish Film Festival 2011
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2011
Athena Film Festival 2011
Cleveland International Film Festival 2011
Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival 2011
New Jersey Jewish Film Festival 2011
Newport Beach Film Festival 2011
Seattle International Film Festival 2011
“This Human World” Human Rights Film Festival 2011
Seattle Jewish Film Festival 2012
Jewish Motifs International Film Festival Warsaw 2012
WHERE TO WATCH
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