The Zionist Idea

This film is an exhaustive three-hour exploration of the forces and ideas which compelled the creation of the state of Israel--the heroism, complexity, desperation, conflicts between Arabs and Jews, and ultimately the dilemmas and tragedy of the current situation.

Similar to Ari Shavitz' great book, "My Promised Land", this film takes the approach of interviewing people on all sides of this issue, and seeing the issue from different viewpoints. Even though it is a long film, there is no way that it could include every piece of this complex history. However, I think it does an amazing job of giving voice to all parties, and leaving one with an overall sense of what is going on in Israel and the occupied territories. There is great documentary footage which I had never seen before, and interviews with people like Amos Oz on the one hand; West Bank settlers, Palestinians displaced, etc.

This film is a powerful and informed contribution to the discussion of what is going on in the Middle East. It should be seen widely and discussed by everyone interested in getting a glimpse of the reality of what has made Israel what it is today.

I am never surprised when intelligent films like Colliding Dreams—which approach polarizing subjects with grace and balance—are slammed in reviews. It seems that some people think that if a movie presents points of view that are different from theirs, or makes you a little uncomfortable by challenging your own prejudices, that makes it a bad film. In fact, the opposite is true.

Colliding Dreams will, if you let it, see historical Zionism and today's Israel from many perspectives—supporters, detractors, those who have lived it and those who fought it, those who study it and those who shaped it. It is precisely this diversity of opinion—presented in an incredibly coherent and affecting narrative—that makes it a great film.

I have been thinking about this movie all day because Colliding Dreams is nothing less than a life changer. It affected me in an analogous way to seeing Shoah.Like Shoah, Colliding Dreams took a 360 degree walk around an integral part of my identity that had always been confusingly and troublingly blurred—and crystallized it. I grew up with an unasked for connection to Israel, but it was like a relative I never saw, didn't know, couldn't tell how to feel about. If I had any sense of Israel, it was through a very partial and distorted lens of my own teen experience getting kicked off kibbutz, paired with my inability to grasp the politics or currents of feelings. Jews going to Israel only told me I couldn't get it, that I merely had a reductive American take on things.

The people who spoke to the audience through the interviews were each awesome. I keep thinking of them! The one who looked like Ray Bolger with his comments about making a good state, and the guy who said "We are trapped!" The young bald guy. The Peace Now woman --what a spirit--with her anecdote about the stickers and the video of her when she was young, and other guys with messy hair. Orly, who moved away, as I have always thought I would if born there. The wonderfully articulate woman with the necklace. I really want to see it again so I can call them by name. What essential, valuable intellects for us to know--what great intelligences are brought to us through them. I knew that whenever someone came on camera I was going to want to hear what they had to say. The directors found the most profound voices and offered them to us in an astoundingly organized way, year by year, decade by decade. They literally spliced a century of time! And I loved the framing of the movie with the siren and the moment of silence, that freeze into motion. Absolutely perfect!

Thank you to the directors for this dedicated, most complicated, grace-filled film. It really made a difference in my life. I have more of a sense of Israel than I have had in my 58 years--and much more a sense of authentic connection because of that.

As someone who has no conflict of interest AND who is very familiar w the topic (watched every israel/Palestine doc I know of; from highly partisan borderline propaganda docs on both POVS to every PBS frontline on the issue to docuseries from the 50s and 60s) this is the most balanced documentary I've seen by far. Contributors are all impressive ppl and both sober/thoughtful in their commentary. Also, as the history of zionism/Jewish immigration to Palestine is chronologically told from both POV relevant impartial context accompanies each major event/conflict. Context extremely important to understanding decisions made (and how simultaneously occurring global events/attitudes influenced those decisions) EXAMPLE 1948 War and David Ben Gurions decision not to let Palestinians back to their homes who fled country.

At first glance from today's perspective that seems extremely harsh and inhumane. But, when the context is added that it's only a couple years after World War II and in Europe at the same time millions of people are forcibly migrated into the new post World War II nation state borders. For example, Germans who previously lived in Poland on the Danzig corridor or in Czechoslovakia in the sudetenland all we're forced to migrate into Germany. And non-germans no longer feel comfortable being minorities in other Nations.

It doesn't justify or rationalize not letting 700,000 people back to their homes after a war that last few weeks but it does give very necessary concurrently occurring Global events that give some substantiation as to why such a seemingly harsh policy was enacted. Because it was occurring at the same time in Europe with other ethnicities and because of the enormous trauma the Jewish population just endured and their understandable reaction to want to only be around other Jews.

I thought Colliding Dreams was excellent, and incredibly engaging. (Didn't look at my watch once!) It was really well balanced with a diversity of voices and opinions and tons of important, and frequently eye-opening, information.

I was particularly fascinated to learn about the roots of Zionism and the goals and dreams of the early settlers. And of course the arc of those dreams is so complex and the current situation so seemingly intractable that one leaves the film with both heartbreak and hope, but above all with the sense of the urgency with which answers must be found.

This is an important movie--rich, informative, and absorbing.