Product Description

From Mexican director Carolina Rivas and cinematographer Daoud Sarhandi comes this elegant and visually breathtaking new film about the Palestinian experience. The Amer family lives surrounded by the infamous West Bank Wall, where their daily lives are dominated by electrified fences, locked gates and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. This unique and intimate documentary shares their private world, allowing a glimpse of the constant struggles and the small, endearing details that sustain them. The Color of Olives is an artistic and beautifully affecting reflection on the effects of racial segregation, the meaning of borders and the absurdity of war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73844 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-23
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: Arabic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Customer Reviews

Under siege . . .
This documentary by Mexican filmmaker Carolina Rivas tells in microcosm the story of Israel's impact on the lives of ordinary Palestinians. A once-prosperous rural family living outside Tel Aviv has found itself in the path of the security walls being erected by Israel in the wake of suicide bombers and armed resistance. Their house now separated from their olive groves and vegetable gardens paved over for a road serving Israeli military vehicles, they are virtual prisoners within a system of security fences. To get anywhere, the parents and each of their six children must wait sometimes hours for soldiers to unlock gates and let them through. Meanwhile, day or night, their house may be the target of a barrage of rocks thrown, we are told, by youngsters from a nearby Jewish settlement. As represented by the film, it is a war of nerves in which the family hangs on tenaciously to a spot of land that they refuse to surrender.

Rivas' documentary style borrows heavily from the tradition of cinema verite, as she views the action of the film - often long waiting at closed gates - with her camera in what seems to be a concealed position. There is no narration and no talking heads, and we get little explanation of the situation, except for what can be gleaned from printed quotes of family members that appear from time to time on the screen. While the news media dramatize the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians by focusing on bombings, this film gives a different kind of picture by examining the day-to-day lives of noncombatants.

Painfully Unwatchable
An empty and static film in which nothing much really happens. Unless you enjoy watching a large Arab family caught up in a militarized zone in which their land was confiscated and their life routine disrupted by unfeeling soldiers--day after day after endless day. Gives none of the political context and controversies leading up to this unfortunate situation. Some kind of basic background story would have made things a little more understandable. Stay Away from this One--regardless of your political leanings.