Tantura

As I write this review in May of 2024, my American government is funding the genocide of the people of Gaza. So far, about 40,000 have been massacred by the IDF with an assortment of armaments from our stores, including two thousand pound "dumb bombs." Teddy Katz is a true hero for having the courage for speaking out against his country by writing a paper with full proof with interviews, of some of the atrocities committed during the Nakba(catastrophe) of 1948. One interview subject, in particular, spoke with glee of a teenage Palestinian girl being sexually assaulted. The man belongs in a jail cell.

Katz received death threats for this and every member of congress should be locked in a room and forced to watch this documentary. It will never happen.

I cannot fathom how much courage the director had to gather to make an honest film about our history.

For anyone who grew up on myths promoted by state propaganda, this film is bound to be hard to watch but ever more so, very much necessary.

Masterfully made. The director deserve all the praise he can get and I wish him the best of luck fending against the immense backlash it created.

The movie serves the honorable purpose of speaking truth to power, with no restraints or filters and for that it is a must watch for anyone who thinking they have an idea about the history of Israel and Palestine.

First person accounts, a master's thesis, a newspaper article about the thesis, and the scandal of truth makes Tantura is a gateway documentary about truth vs the manufactured myths of state creation.

Told in non-linear format, individuals connected to an Arab village recall 1948 events on camera as well as through decades old audio interviews. Memories and rationalizations clash as the true and hidden stories of atrocities are revealed.

All but exclusively interviewing Israelis, Tantura the documentary might be better entitled, Testimonies of Tantura, as only a few Arab voices are heard. While there are some village witnesses who survived interviewed, the focus is on Israeli perspectives, peeling away layers of taboo and myth to reveal the shocking truths, some told so casually, and justified so brazenly, that anyone watching will rightly start questioning the creation myth of the state of Israel.

Tantura is more than examination of an obscured massacre, it's an examination of the relationship Israelis have with the truth.

Pair Tantura this with 1948: Creation & Catastrophe (2017), another documentary relying on first-person accounts to gain better insight into the history of Israel and current events in Palestine.

The phrase "Never Forget" has long been associated with the Holocaust. It's a pushback against the type of willed, collective amnesia that allows not just the perpetrators of atrocities but their descendants to go through life unburdened by guilt for war crimes and the privileges accrued as a result of their commission. The documentary "Tantura" shows how selectively the phrase is applied when the subject is the founding of Israel, which killed and displaced Palestinians and had a negative multigenerational ripple effect that continues into the present day. The movie focuses on the fate of Palestinian residents of the title village in the summer of 1948. A mass murder by Israeli soldiers was part of a grim event that included beatings, rapes, and looting.

My previous review was canceled without any explanation; my only thought is that it must have contained a spoiler.

This is an important film to see. I think the director did a great job telling a forgotten story about the creation of Israel. We are offered a glimpse into history from the perspective of the Israeli soldiers who participated in the massacres of the Palestinian villages that were ethnically cleansed during the creation of the state of Israel. I am amazed that this film was made and screened at US festivals, given the censure these types of films typically receive. It's a tough watch, but a necessary one.