Encounter in Ramallah

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Description

Ramallah, The West Bank, 1996. Two young soldiers, an Israeli and an Arab, encounter one another on a street. Both fire their automatic weapons. Both are wounded. From this starting point, the filmmakers explore the lives of the young men and the age-old conflict in which they are caught. The documentary gives a close-up, human view of the gulf separating the two opposing factions. The two men grew up only thirty miles from each other, yet in two utterly different worlds. The one is an Israeli officer who was raised in a Tel Aviv suburb. He is of the generation that grew up expecting to lead "the good life". His generation is tired of war. The Palestinian officer raised in a West Bank village is commited to pursuing the Palestinian dream of an independent state. The film traces how these two "brothers", descendants of Abraham, ended up enemies. We see how the schools and the elders perpetuate hostility. Both men believed in peace, until their encounter in Ramallah.