SMILE, AND THE WORLD WILL SMILE BACK

Synopsis

One cold December night, Israeli soldiers come up to the al-Haddad family home in a Palestinian neighbourhood of Hebron and knock on the door. They’ve come to search the house.
Diaa, the teenage son, reaches for the family’s video camera. As the search unfolds, a strange power struggle evolves, pitting gun against camera.
The night grows colder, and the soldiers take Diaa outside and order him to face the wall. They won’t leave until he stops smiling.

Links / reference

Diaa, Shatha, Abdelkarim and Ahmad al-Haddad
A Palestinian family from Hebron, West Bank. The father, Abdelkarim, and his two sons Diaa and Ahmad, work as shoemakers, while Shatha is a medical secretary. They are filming human rights violations in Hebron as part of the B’Tselem Camera Project since 2008 and participated in ECF’s “One Minutes Jr.” video project in 2010.

Ehab Tarabieh
Born in Majdal Shams in the Golan heights in 1982, Ehab graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film & TV school in Jerusalem in 2012. His short film THE FORGOTTEN premiered at the Doha Tribeca FF and was screened in numerous other film festivals world-wide. He currently works as camera project co-ordinator in B’Tselem.

Yoav Gross
Born In Jerusalem, Israel, in 1977, Yoav studied film at Tel Aviv University and has worked as a documentary filmmaker and video activist ever since. In 2011, his short film SUSYA premiered in the Berlinale and was screened in many film festivals world-wide. He currently works as video department director in B’Tselem.