Skip to main content
Browse by:
GROUP

In the Desert - A Documentary Diptych: Avidan's Dream

Faingulernt
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Avner Faingulernt

Please join us for the second part of our special screening of "In the Desert - A Documentary Diptych: Avidan's Dream" with director Avner Faingulernt.

'Omar's Dream' and 'Avidan's Dream' are two films that portray daily realities of shepherds in South Mount Hebron. One is about a Palestinian family; the other is about Jewish family. Both live close to each other in an area of the West Bank that is governed by the Palestinian Authority, but controlled by the Israeli Army. Omar Halil Muhammed brings his two wives Gozlan and Miriam from their comfortable house in Yata to live in a tent in the desert and herd his sheep like his ancestors. Avidan Ophir builds a farm near the place where he was born, Susiya, and wants to have his flock spread all over the hills like in Biblical times. Life in the desert is merciless, the politics are brutal, but both of them find that the main drama is inside themselves and their families.

Avner Faingulernt is an Israeli independent filmmaker. He is Associate Professor and the dean of the Faculty of Arts, Kibbutzim College in Tel Aviv. He was chair of the School of Audio & Visual Arts, Sapir Academic College, founder of Cinema South Festival[1] in Sderot, chief editor of the annual "Cinema South Notebooks" and "Cinema South The Curator Book". Faingulernt was also a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York, the University of Haifa, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at Filmakademie Baden Württemberg. He is an educator and a peace activist.

Note: 'Omar's Dream' will be screened in the Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater on March 28 at 7pm, with director Avner Faingulernt in attendance: https://jewishstudies.duke.edu/events/desert-documentary-diptych-omars-dream