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For decades, Lea Tsemel has defended her Palestinian clients in Israeli courts, arguing their right to protest their occupation any way they see fit. This award-winning documentary follows her as she takes on two difficult new cases.
Most of her fellow Israelis call them terrorists. But Lea Tsemel calls her Palestinian clients ‘freedom fighters’. She is their advocate – passionately defending them in court, as she has done for decades. Philippe Bellaiche and Rachel Leah Jone’s multi-award-winning documentary interweaves distinctive animation and archive to tell Lea’s story as she takes on two difficult new cases.
They both face uphill struggles in the notoriously harsh Israeli courts – one is a woman accused of plotting a suicide bombing; the other, a 13-year-old who accompanied his older brother on a stabbing spree. Despite nearly always losing, Lea is determined to represent her clients’ humanity and motivations after fifty years of occupation.