States of Unbelonging

Lynne Sachs' highly personal film essay is rooted in her exchange of letters with Nir Zats, a former film student of Sachs now living on an Israeli kibbutz. At the core of their correspondence is the subject of the tragic death of filmmaker Revital Ohayon, killed in a 2002 terrorist raid on a kibbutz near the West Bank (Ohayon's two young children were also murdered). It's tragically ironic that Ohayon was a staunch opponent of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and she used the cinematic medium to explore its dehumanizing effects on Palestinian women. Clips from Ohayon's films are interwoven among the recitation of the letters between Zats and Sachs (sometimes the imagery doesn't quite match the narration, yet that sense of disconnect seems to mirror Israeli-Palestinian relations). As an American, Sachs clearly views the situation through a different filter than Zats, who is in the midst of the struggle. States of Unbelonging doesn't, of course, offer any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem, but it does present a mature, artistic meditation on Middle East violence. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)