As concepts go, Checkpoint’s is beautifully simple: filmwhat happens at the border posts and crossingsbetween Israel and ‘Palestine’, do not interfere and donot comment on what you see – just show.

Like the courtroom or the clinic, the checkpointsbetween Israel and Palestine are an amplifier of socialundercurrents, resentments, jealousies and fearsbetween and within two antagonistic communities. Aswith the numerous ‘Ks’ of Kafka’s novels, thePalestinians are the accused for numerous, namelesscrimes, the Israelis are the doormen by the Door thatleads to ‘the Law’. Anamplifier also serves tosimplify and render; themost telling quote to liftfrom this film is one word,repeated by an Israeli to aPalestinian crowd – ‘Back,back, back…’ It is animperative, not a question.

Or do we see instead theabsurdism of Beckett(‘Beckett with big guns’ asone reviewer put it)? Inone rain-drenched scenethe difficulty faced by a man and a young boy whenonly one can proceed, and there is a single umbrellato share, is a minor, yet profound existential dilemma.

Shamir presents his footage tonally rather thanchronologically, shifting in time and season, fromblazing sun to freezing rain so that this is lessreportage than deep existential tragedy; a series ofparables about the struggle to retain humanity, civilityand decency in a state of permanent siege. Failure onall three counts is understated but frequent; TheBorder Police, mostly Arab Druze, do not seem to carethat Shamir is watching them as they sexually harassfemale Palestinian students and routinely humiliatemen at the Bethlehem crossing.

Where not downright unpleasant, the situation lapsesinto the absurd. When a large group of Palestiniansdecide to simply ignore the soldiers who are detainingthem en masse, and walk, the shots fired into the airare a resigned, pathetic gesture. In contrast, a winterscene sees Palestinians playfully broadside soldierswith snowballs, in their excitement letting slip war-criesof the Intifada.

Yet there should be no mistake as to who drives thetanks or whose fingers are on the safety-catch. It isalways the Palestinians who must submit, and as oneof them astutely remarks, terrorists would hardly beobliging enough to present themselves at acheckpoint. Thus, it is only one armed camp that wesee here.

And this, one could argue, slightly unbalances the film– all of the Palestinians are civilians and all the Israelisare in uniform. As Shamir explains, settlers werealmost always waved on. The soldiers themselves areno more than boys, way out of their depth, yethardening every day that they patrol. Shamir recordsattitudes ranging from the embittered and openly racist(one soldier refers to the people of Ramallah as‘animals’), to the perennially bored, to the homesick.They hold in common a cynicism that sustains themmore than any sense of duty or patriotic fervour …’When the Palestinians come,’ says one soldier

reclining by a puddle, ‘weput on our show.’

The Palestinians areequally theatrical – oneold man, fuming as hewaits to pass, mutters tothe camera ‘… film this,let THEM see’. There isa contest under wayhere, over that mostcherished territorial gain– the truth. As Shamirrelates below, both sideswere greedy for the lens.

And few are as content to simply let the situationspeak for itself as Shamir. This minimalist piece isreassuringly free of the distortions of either left or right.If Michael Moore can depict pre-war Iraq as toy-townor Ken Livingstone can fraternise with Yusef-al-Qarawadi, then rational perspective on the Middle Eastis a long way off.

Shamir is himself keen to confront the internalcontradictions amongst the global left, particularly thecourting by some of its members of anti-Semitereactionaries like Quarawadi. ‘I am making a filmabout the connection between anti-Israel and anti-Semitism. It is going to be around the world … Israel,France, America, somewhere in East Europe, the UKprobably, Germany … all over the place.’ A broadtopic, indeed.

MM

Were there any logistical difficulties in making thefilm? Was permission a problem?

Not really because it is in public grounds, so basicallyanyone can shoot there. The more difficult thing was,you know to make your way when you are there. Iwanted to bring up a subject that is away, is hidden –people know there are checkpoints, but they don’tknow the ‘why’ of these wars, what they look like, whatdoes this really mean on a daily basis … I wanted tobring it out and raise awareness.

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Prose

CheckpointAn interview with Yoav Shamir

How long did you actually spend at eachcheckpoint?

A lot, you know, so checks I would go, you know, like1-2-2. All the checkpoints I have been to more thanonce. But some of them were four or five days in arow, and some were just maybe like different betweendays and weeks and months. We spent many hoursat each checkpoint – going early in the morning andstaying until, I don’t know, late afternoon or sometimeslate night depending on the situation. After a while,and I was working on my own so I didn’t have … I wasshooting it myself and there was no sound menbasically, so it was kind of like a one man thing, youknow.

Did any of the soldiers have a problem with youbeing there?

Sure – but there is nothing they can do about it.

How did the Palestinians react to you being there?

Some of them disliked it, but I think most of them areaware of the power of media, and for them it was likethey would be getting their say and people would seewhat was happening with them. They only interfered acouple of times, people have [… inaudible] about that.

There aren’t any settlers in the film …

Normally, they just wave them through … All of thecheckpoints in the film are not checkpoints that settlerspass through. They are even deeper insidePalestinian territories. They have no reason to passthrough the ones we see. They might pass next tothem in the road that leads somewhere else.

It was quite interesting how everyone in that filmsaw you as someone who could help them or be ofuse to them in putting their point of view across.The soldiers were obviously very aware of whatrole you could play in putting forward their point ofview as well.

Yes, but sometimes they just like the company,because it is so boring over there.

Did any of the military top brass contact you, orcomment on the film?

The Army is using the film now for instructionalpurposes.

So I the procedures the soldiers use whenstopping the Palestinians, is that the ‘text book’method?

No, definitely not … But I think now there is like moreawareness of the problem and they realise things arenot going the way they should be, so hopefully theywill do something about it. My political point of view isquite clear from the film, so in a way I am not happyabout the Army using the film to build a bettercheckpoint – I would like to see the checkpointsdisappear and I would like to see us withdrawing fromthere. But I think on a pragmatic level, meanwhilewhile they are still there, especially the younger

soldiers to see from the outside before they are likecompletely sucked into the situation. So it is a goodthing, I think.

You attempt a balanced viewpoint throughout thisfilm, but you do seem to invite us to make adistinction between the Border Police – lewd,unpleasant and aggressive, and the Army who arethat bit more ambivalent and, of course, muchyounger.

Just a spot of reality, you know – the Border Police arenotoriously hard – and the fact is that most of them areDruze and Russian immigrants. You know what a‘Druze’ is?

Are those Christian Arabs?

Not Christian, but like kind of it is Muslim Arab, butwith a kind of mystical theology unique to them. Thereis a long-term hatred between them and thePalestinians. So it has been like the worst nightmare,these guys and the Russian immigrants who came toIsrael tend to be very resentful themselves – it is not agood combination.

You chose a very interesting structure in editingthe film, non-chronological, almost tonal – whatwas your reason for choosing to do it that way?

It is very hard to build a structure for a film like that,you know, which has no ostensible narratives. So wewent with the seasons. And because we veered fromthe personal, to the black humour, to the much darkermoments … So the point behind the editing was tobasically try to lead the audience between these verydifferent scenes … Sometimes its very absurd andblack humour, like the scenes at the beginning – andall of a sudden, I try to strike them a little bit, shakethem, you know.

Has the film been on general release in Israeli?

Yes, it has been shown on a few channels … First ofall the film was funded by an Israeli public televisionbroadcaster, and they have broadcast it already, likemany times. And in September 2004 it is going to beon Channel 2, which is the biggest commercialchannel, which means a very big audience and I amreally looking forward to the responses.

What has the general response been so far?

Press-wise they have been great, because … I don’tknow … people like the film. So far they have beenreally good – even right-wing politicians who haveseen the film. I think everybody agreed that it shows avery hard picture, but like in a fair way, non-manipulative way. So it is hard for them, but they haveto accept it, you know.

What has been the response of the Israel left?

A lot of them took it well. Some of the extreme left,you know, said that it is not reflecting what is reallygoing on, that things in reality are harder. But since Ishowed the film in, like, Ramallah, many Palestiniansdisagreed … So they were happy with it – they are

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feeling it is a very honest picture. So for some reasonthe radical left in Israel had more trouble receiving thefilm than the Palestinians. For me, the views andperceptions of Palestinians are more important.

Have you been back to the checkpoints since?

I have been once, and when I travel, I occasionallyhave to go through them, you know. But some of them– most of the checkpoint people were very deep insidethe territories, so unless you were settlers there wasno really reason to go there. But it is like dangerous,even going in with your car …

I suppose everyone asks you this question, but …in your view, what is the solution to the situation inthe West Bank?

I think the solution is very easy: Israel is going to haveto go back to its ‘67 lines and everyone knows it isgoing to happen – in two years, in five years, in 10years – I don’t know. But for sure, I don’t see anyother way.

Do you think there needs to be two separateStates?

Personally, I would love to see a single state for thetwo people, but I don’t think it is realistic. I don’t thinkthey want it either, though. So at least for a while itshould be probably two States and then later on, whoknows? But their economy is so attached to ours …unless they are going to have an independenteconomy, completely detached from Israel, I don’tknow – I don’t know how it would work for them.

Checkpoint/Dir. Yoav Shamir/Israel/2003/78 min.

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