Amos Gitai, a 75-year-old Israeli writer-director, has created a documentary titled The Road to Jericho that centers on Khan al-Ahmar, a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The village’s “school of tires,” a structure built from unconventional materials, serves as the film’s focal point. The school has operated for eight years under the threat of demolition by Israeli authorities, who have denied the settlement an official building permit and declared it illegal. According to Gitai, international pressure has been instrumental in keeping the school operational.
Gitai’s documentary blends current footage of Khan al-Ahmar with archival material spanning four decades, creating what he describes as a portrait of history as “a great tidal churn.” The film incorporates clips from his 2001 drama Eden, which featured playwright Arthur Miller, as well as archive interviews with Israeli political figures Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin from the mid-1990s Oslo accords period. Gitai reflects on how the assassination of Rabin in 1995 marked a turning point, disrupting efforts toward dialogue and agreement between parties.
The director characterizes the current period as the most challenging of his lifetime, noting that Israeli society has experienced profound shock at the scale of violence witnessed in recent years. He emphasizes that both extreme-right settlers and Hamas represent obstacles to peace, having replaced what he views as a more reasonable generation of leaders. Gitai visited Khan al-Ahmar initially while filming another project and was moved by the community’s resilience, leading him to use filmmaking as a form of advocacy.
Gitai approaches his work as a “civic gesture,” though he expresses skepticism about cinema’s direct capacity to alter reality. Instead, he views art as a means to “scratch a memory” and convey ideas, which he considers crucial forces for change. Drawing on a 40-year-old interview with Bassam Shakaa, a Palestinian mayor who lost a leg in a settler attack, Gitai reflects on the importance of maintaining hope despite current circumstances. He references Europe’s recovery following World War II as evidence that societies can reconstruct themselves even after experiencing profound devastation.
The Road to Jericho screens at this year’s Venice film festival, where several other films examining Middle Eastern geopolitics are also being presented, including NAZA in the main competition and a VR documentary about ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
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