The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation

Hopefully no viewers will seriously attempt to put into practice what Avi Mograbi offers us from his living-room chair: a how-to guide to military occupation. His strategic reflections have the innocent veneer of general considerations as to how one might successfully occupy a foreign territory against all resistance. His prime example here is the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Statements from Israeli soldiers about their service there, which were gathered for the organisation Breaking the Silence, give insight into the historical stages of the occupation and its daily routines, which have been in place for decades. These emotionless descriptions of everyday arbitrariness and cruelty are harrowing and difficult to listen to.

Eyewitness reports and archival material are just two of the basic documentary techniques to which Mograbi's instruction manual lends a reflexive frame and analytical acuity. Without relativising, he concentrates on the side of the perpetrator. The result is sharp-tongued and ironic but often helpless and full of sadness too in light of the seemingly unstoppable escalation.

Source: 71. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)