Home is located in space, but it is not necessarily a fixed space. It does not need bricks and mortar; it can be a wagon, a caravan, a boat or a tent. It need not be a large space, but space there must be, for home starts by bringing some space under control.
-Mary Douglas, "The Idea of Home: A Kind of Space"
The morning after the elections in 1996, I spontaneously filmed the interior of my apartment. Looking out the window I saw a group of ultra-orthodox Jews who live nearby. They were in high spirits as they were calculating the amazing increase of seats for the religious parties in the Knesset. Above them, on the facade of an apartment building, hung a large banner which read: "Netanyahu, for peace with security”. The camera turned to the interior of my apartment. The act of observing the rooms and the personal effects within them gave me pleasure and a sense of security. Everything was as it had been the night before, when I went to sleep thinking that the peace process, led by Shimon Peres, would continue to the year 2000. In the face of sudden change and turmoil I perceived my home as defined by Mary Douglas’ definition, and find in it a shelter from the chaos outside. In a drawing by my 8 year-old son, there is a house-like structure, roughly outlined, afloat in a void, which seems like a tempest or sandstorm, a house which has detached from the ground and lost control. This is how he showed his feelings of insecurity after his mother and father had separated.
The film is a personal investigation of the meaning of "home". The narrative weaves its way between two extremes - security and peace of mind, on the one hand; chaos and confusion on the other. Personal and public events in Israel, a country where separating the two is nearly impossible, are intertwined, spanning a period of six years (1992-98) during which the peace process with the Palestinians came into being and a rebuilding of my personal home began. (Amit Goren)
Hebrew with English subtitles
The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis
