REVIEWS

“Rachel Leah Jones' documentary 500 Dunam on the Moon unsettles the dominant Israeli narrative about the artists' colony Ein Hod, founded in the wake of the dispossession of the Palestinian village Ayn Hawd, while giving the term “artists' colony” an ironic twist. Within the film, the pictorial setting of the region does not serve a kind of a nostalgia for the exotic, but only highlights a multi-layered history of silence; the much glorified (“hod” of the Hebrew) hybrid architectural style that combines “East” and “West” has been literally built upon the ruins of Palestinian houses. Capturing this process from the perspective of the remaining Palestinian villagers, living on the outskirts of their old home, Jones's film courageously puts the “present absentees” back, as it were, on the map.”

—Professor Ella Shohat, NYU.

“Of the many films in this year's festival that deal with conflict in the Middle East, most seem to be sketches toward a movie… The exception is Rachel Leah Jones' 500 Dunam on the Moon. Jones had the wit to seize on a revelatory topic for her picture and the patience to develop it fully.”

—Stuart Klawans, The Nation.

“Rachel Leah Jones' dispassionate tour of the village Ein Hod, nee Ayn Hawd, encapsulates the most bitter of Israel's ironies: how a place of refuge created its own refugees.”

—Jessica Winter, The Village Voice.

“During the ongoing fever-pitched crisis in the Middle East, a film like 500 Dunam on the Moon seems essential… The movie is free of the usual rhetoric and hyperbole (from both sides), and shows one neighbor struggling along while the other prospers.”

—Seth Bookey, Gay City News.

PRESS (as of April 2003)

PRINT

• New York Times, “A Tale of Two Middle East Villages.” Feature by Celestine Bohlen. June 17, 2002.

• The Village Voice, “Behind the Barricades.” Piece by Jessica Winter. June 19, 2002.

• The Nation, “Global Rights: The Movies.” Feature by Stuart Klawans. June 17, 2002.

• The Jerusalem Post, “A Celebration of Radical Politics.” Piece by Melissa Radler. June 7, 2002.

• San Francisco Chronicle, “The Middle East and Beyond.” Piece by Jonathan Curiel. June 26, 2002

• The Forward, “Underdogs, Undercut.” Piece by Robert Sklar. June 14, 2002.

• The Jewish Week, “Uprooted by History.” Piece by George Robinson. June 14, 2002.

• Gay City News, “Art Through Crisis.” Piece by Seth Bookey. June 7, 2002.

• El Financiero, “Visiones de la decadencia y la atrocidad.” Piece by Naief Yehya. June 26, 2002.

• America Oggi, “Le pellicole del coraggio.” Piece by Laura Caparrotti. June 9, 2002.

• Aufbau, “Vigilence Around the World.” Piece by Talia Bloch. June 13, 2002.

• Le Monde, “Un Arpent sur la Lune.” Review. April 11, 2003.

TELEVISION

• CNN, “Diplomatic License.” Interview with Rachel Leah Jones. June 16, 2002.

• Free Speech TV, “Democracy Now.” Interview with Rachel Leah Jones. June 24, 2002.

RADIO

• WBAI New York, “Beyond the Pale.” Interview with Rachel Leah Jones. June 9, 2002.

• WBAI New York, “Wakeup Call.” Interview with Rachel Leah Jones. June 17, 2002.

• Pacifica Network (NY, LA, SF, DC, Houston), “Democracy Now.” Interview with Rachel Leah Jones. June 24, 2002.

INTERNET

• Indiewire.com. Piece by Mark Rabinowitz. July 11, 2002.

• IslamOnline.net. Feature by Dilshad Ali. June 30. 2002.

REVIEWS TEXT

Un Arpent Sur La Lune [500 Dunam on the Moon]
A poetic documentary about the strange existence of the Palestinians of Israel, Le Monde, April 11, 2003

A child asks Muhammad to build her a spaceship so she can travel to the moon. A strange request! But in a way the little girl already lives on the moon, in Ayn Hawd al-Jadida, near Haifa, at the foothills of the Carmel.

The tone is set. It is poetic. Decisively. Cleverly. The child could have been sketched by Saint Exupéry. However, it is a documentary, one that illustrates the true story of a Palestinian village in Israel and sums up the story of two peoples claiming the same land. In 1948, when the State of Israel was established, Muhammad’s grandfather defended his village along with the other inhabitants of Ayn Hawd, but the Israelis seized it, and by renaming it Ein Hod turned it into an artists’ colony. Instead of taking the route of exile and finding himself in a refugee camp in Jenin or even further away—like the majority of the villagers—the grandfather camped in the nearby hills with his family and little Muhammad. There, he built the New Ayn Hawd (al-Jadida), 1.5 kilometers from Ein Hod, in violation of Israeli law.

The new hamlet is so illegal, that, for a long time, it did not appear on the map and its “occupants” were summoned to demolish it themselves. Finally, thanks to ongoing passive resistance, they became barely tolerated. But Muhammad and his kin, are still facing numerous constraints. And to worsen their isolation, the Israelis planted a wooden curtain of cypresses around them. But the minaret towers above the trees, like a finger pointing to a denied existence.

American, and raised in Tel Aviv, Rachel Leah Jones takes a position. Her compassion for the Palestinians is equaled only by her irony for the Israelis. But, by denouncing the surreal situation on both sides, she above all emphasizes the symbolic value of words and images. With the complicity of Muhammad, village head and poet-despite-himself who so movingly speaks of “our disturbed childhood is these cypresses, planted in order to Judaize the area” and who promises the moon to his little princess so that she can trade with the Israelis for “the land on which we live,” the director and her lead character confirm that often humor is born of despair and poetry of the absurd. Marvelously, both of them make us understand that the Palestinians live with the impression that they are asking for the moon…
 

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