Past screening

Koudelka: Shooting Holy Land

Directed by: Gilad Baram
Runtime: 1hr 12min Year: 2015
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Directed by: Gilad Baram
Runtime: 1hr 12min Year: 2015
Country: Germany, Czech Republic

Director Gilad Baram, the assistant of renowned Czech photographer Josef Koudelka, follows him on a journey through the Holy Land from one enigmatic and visually spectacular location to another.

Czech Photographer Josef Koudelka grew up behind the Iron Curtain and always wanted to know “what was on the other side”. Forty years after capturing the iconic images of the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968, the legendary Magnum photographer arrives in Israel and Palestine.

On first seeing the nine-meter-high wall built by Israel in the West Bank, Koudelka is deeply shaken and embarks on a four-year project in the region which will confront him once again with the harsh reality of violence and conflict. Director Gilad Baram, Koudelka’s assistant at the time, follows him on his journey through the Holy Land from one enigmatic and visually spectacular location to another.

A fascinating dialogue emerges between Baram’s cinematography and Koudelka’s still photographs, as Baram places the photographer in his own breathtaking compositions, while the austere images of a landscape divided by concrete walls and barbed wire reveal the tragic absurdity of the infamous conflict.