Monday, February 26

9 Star Hotel

Ido Haar's award winning documentary movie "9 Star Hotel" (מלון 9 כוכבים) tells about a group of Palestinian construction workers who are building homes in Modi'in.
Illegally crossing the green line with their backpacks and blankets in order to make a living in contruction, they sleep at night in the Modi'in area hills in make-shift tent like buildings, afraid of the police who may come and arrest them at any minute, for illegal presence. The film focuses especially on Ahmed, who collects and recycles things he finds and Muhamad, the philosopher of the group.

I could write a lot about this movie, but no written words will do it justice. Just go and see it.
The film can be watched at the Tel Aviv cinemateque.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope to see the Oscar winning West Bank story when it comes on the circuit.

What do you think of the movie,yudit?

yudit said...

haven't yet seen it, so i couldn't tell

Anonymous said...

Hi Yudit I have read your blog on several ocassions and I ask myself if you are Jewish. Your name looks Jewish but your blog Arab.

Curious

yudit said...

My name, given to me at birth is yehudit, יהודית, which over time became shortened to yudit or yuyu (for really good friends). So i guess that kind of answers the question in a way, concerning me. But i don't really understand it, your question.
Can a blog, which really isn't more than a bunch of virtual words and images, actually be "Arab" or "Jewish"? Or Muslim or Chinese? A woman or a man?
And does it matter?
Would you ask an American blogger if he or she was black or white or native Indian? In fact if the writer is a he or a she? Would that matter?
"Ana yafawiye", as we say, i'm from Jaffa, i write about what i see around me.

I live in Ajami, a mixed Jewish Palestinian ("Israeli Arab" some would say, i suppose) neighbourhood in Jaffa.
I'm a photographer and have really good eyes. I try to see beyond the mere surface.

Anonymous said...

................. but at least you are religious, yes?

Anonymous said...

This yuyu, is this in any way related to a lifelong fascination for jujubes(:

yudit said...

Me religious? I post on shabat so that should give you some sort of answer.
But then, i am an idealist and my moral understanding of the world is deeply rooted in my ethnicity, i suppose.

yudit said...

jujubes?

Anonymous said...

You are unfamiliar with this wine gum
type of candy?

Anonymous said...

I do not think a name is the criteria of religen. I know people with names like Israeli who have nothing to do with us.

How do you consider your ethnicity. WHat would you define it.

I ask because your blog looks under the surfac but a lot of time it looks like its has very spesific angel and yes its relevent. I think that yes. If I know wer you come from I can understand your clam

Anonymous said...

wow...
your claim, anonimous, is what i felt like shocking while I was visitin' Israel and Palestinian territories.
Weel, ok, I'm italian, i'm neither muslim or jews, it's not my country or region or nothing but...considering that in a weblog words are not sufficient to "tell" something it's amazing, for me.

What i wanna say is that words (everywhere, but maybe posted freely on the net by common ppl even more) should make u think.
So, consider yudit's ethnicity would let you think more or less ?
Or will it maybe just "help" u in put her words in a kind of standarized box?

sorry yudit if i replied.(hi! by the way)
anonimous:i didn't want to be rude, just some things drive me crazy...

marty/truesmile

yudit said...

Marty/truesmile, how lovely to hear from u!!!
JP, i guess winegums 're not really my thing, as to sweets, chocolate, grapes & dates 're what i like. Honey goes well too.

As to anonymous, well....
You talk about "us", but you are anonymous so what would that "us" relate to?
Inm general whenever i hear people talking about "us", i get that nasty feeling of differentiating between "us" (whoever) and "them" (the others) and start to feel uncomfortable.
I am a woman, a human being, an Ajami resident, i live in Jaffa, i am an image maker, i teach photography, i care about people about the place i live in, i am secular in some ways, and perhaps religious in a sense in others, i love tu bi'shvat and purim, i like Id el Fiter in Jaffa as well, go figure and get a life.
I write what about what i see around me. If it doesn't appeal to you, i can provide you with a reading list: the "more nevuhim", the "shoulhan arokh" and when you 're done with what's right and wrong, i suggest shir hashirim for your soul and "ayen erekh ahava" for your brain.
But maybe i do you wrong and your anonymous us relates to the wonderful people of the people's republic of china or perhaps somewhere all the way in Papua New Guinea.
Ever had a look at the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?

Anonymous said...

You are very defesiv. I amnot sure for what. I do not have blog but I read your blog and find it interesting.

At the same it apir to carry aggreshon and I ask for your background so I can understand why you are angry. You choose not to anser me and in place on anser you get angry.

I read a lot of text even if my English look bad HAHA. But, I like to understand the people under the blog also. I already read you list but I am talking on your blog and you as creater of the blog and I am curious about its creator.

Is this bad? I wish you חג שמח and offer you suggeston maybe some sun and beech. I think you very stress.

Anonymous said...

NB

I am not looking to divid people on ethnic issue. This is crazy. I am only trying to understand.

You make assumption autmoatic that I come with bad thought. But, I am not offended. Many people are pesemist. It is sunshine outside. I am gonna enjoy.

BYeBYE

Anonymous said...

Us And Them

And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do

Forward he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
The General sat, and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side

Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who
Up and down
And in the end it's only round and round and round

Haven't you heard it's a battle of words
The poster bearer cried
Listen son, said the man with the gun
There's room for you inside

Down and out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about
With, without
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about

Out of the way, it's a busy day
And I've got things on my mind
For want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died

Pink Floyd

Anonymous, she gave your ears a good scrubbing.
Instead to agree on her reasonable
explanation you turn yourself into an -8 year old child.

yudit said...

I think that one of the main problems in the Middle East is our interest in people's ecaxt identity. "What are you?" instead of "who are you?". We like too much to put stickers on each other, thereby creating an "us" and "them" situation (as in us=good, them=bad). But, don't we all have red blood, and doesn't it hurt when we get wounded? Aren't we all people?

Anonymous said...

HURT? WOUNDED? Oh my god this is crazy?

I don't have any more question.

Anonymous said...

J.P. thank you for protecting her from my oful question. She really needed your defens.

What is your backgroun? It is like i made a crime againt humanty.

People say hello what is your name where you from. This is natural. But no it is hard for some people to be polit and say sorry this is personal and not your bisness and in place they make stupid philosophy out of simple questions.

Good luck to people like this. Maybe my english is so stupid that you are not undertsnading me. מזל טוב על זה שהברחתם קורא אפשר לחשוב מה שאלתי. באמת התמודדות לא מרשימה בכלל עם פניה שבאה ממקום טוב.

Anonymous said...

My background as a member of a former colonial empire has taught me to accept all different colours and language.
When we take a closer look at your first comments there are no or minimal mistakes, two times you mention your bad English, but its not is it?

By reading your words phonetic,I know you to speak Hebrew as native language and by having a good look at the distance between the letters in the mistaken words, I only conclude the distance to be too wide between the keys on the board.
Under cover of people who do have trouble writing proper English you hide like the wolf in sheepscloth.
Must feel great to be this smart and cunning.

Anonymous said...

יו איזה סרט הזוי. מי היזמין את הגשש לשיחה

yudit said...

ِِِamazing, this was a sort post about a documentary movie about the horrid situation of Palestinian labourers living under awful conditions and being chased by the police for the sole "crime" of wanting to work.

And now look what those comments have brought us to. But perhaps that's exactly what the movie is about: the relation of a certain, not insignificant part the Israeli Jewish public towards "the other"

Anonymous said...

לא ידעתי שיש פה בכלל משהו שונה תחלס חיפשתי את המשותף ודחיתם אותי

yudit said...

anonymous, you sort of keep generalising: "you (in the plural, for my English readers) keep pushing me out".
Who's "you"?

By insisting on writing in Hebrew, i think YOU prevent a number of people from understanding your remarks, as some of the readers here are not Hebrew speakers.

I was trying to bring the discourse back "in line": the original article was about a movie. Have you seen it? What did you think about that movie?


I think it is you who introduced the conversation about "us" and "them".
The movie talks about that as well, albeit in a different way.