MVD Entertainment Group has tabbed June 8 as the street date for two films on DVD from award-winning Israeli documentary filmmaker Shimon Dotan.
Raised in the Kibbutz system, Dotan knows the land, the people and sees his adopted country of Israel (born in Romania) from a different point of view than the city-dwellers. Before becoming a filmmaker, he was in the Israeli military as their equivalent of a “Navy SEAL” and a graduate of Tel Aviv University where he distinguished himself as a student filmmaker ... and later in his life an NYU Professor of Political Cinema.
Included in this June 8 selection is his 2007 award-winning Sundance Film Festival documentary, Hot House, which is an in-depth exploration of the Israeli jail and prison system, which — at the time of the Dotan’s film — was “home” to something like 10,000 Palestinian prisoners.
We learn from the interviews that the system has its own factions, often at war with other. Also, that the prisoners are educated by the Israelis — in Hebrew, ironically — often getting University degrees while incarcerated.
And, we also get a glimpse of how callous life can be viewed … a former newscaster, Ahlam Tamimi, describes how she went on air to report on a suicide-bombing … moments earlier she had dropped the bomber off near his target (talk about “first hand” reporting).
Also heading to DVD on June 8 from MVD Entertainment Group is Shimon Dotan’s 2016 documentary, The Settlers, which traces the history of the 70-year history of the West Bank settlements.
Not only does Dotan deliver a rich and detailed history of the area, but there are extensive interviews with the Israelis living in the area … and the Palestinians who are constantly at odds with them.
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