Mizna Film Series

Route 181: Fragments of A Journey in Palestine-Israel, “Part 3: The North,” “Part 2: The Center” & “Part 1: The South”

Expired March 28, 2022 4:59 AM
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In the summer of 2002, Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi travel together from the south to the north of their country of birth; they traced their trajectory on a map and called it ROUTE 181. This virtual line follows the borders outlined in Resolution 181, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1947 to partition Palestine into two states.


As they travel, Khleifi and Sivan meet a multitude of characters, each of which has their own way of evoking the frontiers that separate them from their neighbors: concrete, barbed-wire, cynicism, humor, indifference, suspicion, aggression; frontiers have been built on the hills and in the plains, on mountains and in valleys but above all, in the collective unconscious of both societies.


ROUTE 181: FRAGMENTS OF A JOURNEY IN PALESTINE-ISRAEL is divided into three parts, screening between January and March 2022 as part of the Mizna Film Series.


Please note: this program is available to view ONLY within the United States.

THE CENTER: From Lod City to the Jerusalem area. The second part of ROUTE 181 begins in the Center for New Immigrants in Lod, as Russian musicians play melodies from Eastern Europe to greet new immigrants who have just arrived from Ethiopia. The scene is a bit chaotic, a bit mundane, and a bit perplexing. But the filmmakers move on quickly from this bizarre arrival to the walls of a local council and the lives of people living in various places around the center of Palestine-Israel. This part of the film discusses building settlements and the destruction of former towns and homes and encounters tourists, artists, scholars, and soldiers. Capturing the experiences of everyday people, this second installment in the journey of Sivan and Khleifi across the proposed border line of UN charter Resolution 181, exposes the dangers and hope we might find in the historical narratives we tell.


  • Year
    2003
  • Runtime
    103 minutes
  • Language
    Arabic, Hebrew
  • Country
    Palestine
  • Director
    Michel Khleifi, Eyal Sivan