BEIT JALA
is a small town in the Palestinian West Bank. It is located 8 km from Jerusalem and borders directly on the city of Bethlehem. For centuries the 18000 inhabitants live together in Christian and Muslim families. Despite the restrictions imposed by decades of Israeli occupation, they try daily to lead a normal existence.
CONTENT
Over the structure of a day, the film portrays the everyday life of this city. The young manageress of the textile factory, the taxi driver, the housewife, the Muslim hotel manager of a Christian hotel, and the urban civil engineer are the protagonists of the documentary about people in the streets and shops that coincidence has led before the camera. They all share their lives with the audience - their daily work, their personal hopes, joys and fears. We experience them from the early hours of the morning until the evening in places that are important to them: from the families at home before leaving for work, the factory, the hotel to the Orthodox Church, the mosque, the car workshop, the refugee camp, the stone processing factory, the Cremisan wine-growing region, Bergisch Gladbach Platz, the fruit shop....
Bit by bit the picture becomes more and more condensed and the spectators get an insight into the life of our protagonists in a small town in the West Bank. Above all, we experience people who, despite the difficult conditions in an occupied country, do not lose their courage and humour and prefer to live on in their city, if only it were possible for them somehow.
Director: Cordula Garrido and Claudia Kock
Camera: Cordula Garrido and Hannes Kramer
Sound design, mix and music: Countersubject Audio
Edited by: Holger Kunze
Color Correction: Rainer Speidel
Production: Der Betrieb
On behalf of the town twinning association Bergisch Gladbach - Beit Jala e.V.