To Die in Jerusalem
In a suicide bombing attack two 17 year-old women die on March 29, 2002 in Jerusalem. Palestinian Ayat al-Akhras takes Israeli Rachel Levy with her into death when she blows herself up in a shopping centre. The news take flight and spreads itself quickly. President Bush makes a well-known statement. The world grieves for a day, but awakens to new horrors the following day. Left behind with their grief are the families of both the girls. Yet another bitter chapter is written in the book on the poisoned and hard-to-solve conflict between Palestine and Israel.
In To Die in Jerusalem we get out of the media stream and behind the headlines. Here we meet the mother Abigail Levy in her grief work after Rachel’s death.
No matter how she turns them over and over again in her mind there are questions for which she can find no answer. She decides to try to make contact with the other girl’s mom.
In parallel to this, we meet Ayat’s parents. We get to peek into their daily lives, and see how they place themselves in their daughter’s situation and with fragments of memory try to piece together the puzzle which will enable them to understand their daughter’s motives.
Via satellite links begins a unique conversation between two women on either side of the most longstanding conflict of our time.
Hilla Medalia’s film breaks through the wall which was erected between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem. It lets the enemies speak with each other as people. At the same time it offers a naked and no-holds-barred picture of the extremely complicated situation in the Gaza Strip. Pride, religion, and politics are set against that which is common to all of mankind in this captivating portrayal of two mothers who have lost their beloved daughters.
