The theme and atmosphere of this film are terseness, the banality of evil, the destructive occupier’s lack of conscience and self-justifications. It’s also the story of the occupier’s inability to face up to his own actions, taking refuge in abstraction (God, nation, security) which becomes a legitimizing mechanism.
“At a certain point, the violence reaches such a degree that it makes you want to vomit. Then you feel like getting real. I don’t have a machine gun in front of me, but I might have a camera. I don’t want to use it as a machine gun; it’s a different instrument.
I like to show things, not denounce them. But the way the film is structured could reflect what I feel or think. On the other hand, there’s no point in taking a situation out of context to emphasize a specific point of view. It’s always quite interesting to examine the contradictions of a situation.” Amos Gitai