MOVIE

Swallows Never Die in Jerusalem

1994 · 84 min · Drama

Both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are sensitively explored in the Tunisian-French drama. Richard, a French TV journalist has been assigned to do a political story in Jerusalem the night before Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat sign their peace accord. Richard is glad to go as it gives him a chance to see his girlfriend Esther, a psychologist. Esther's father Moshe is continually tormented by his Holocaust memories. Hammoudi, nicknamed "Local Radio," is Richard's taxi driver and guide. He tells Richard the story of his family which was uprooted in 1948 resulting in the disappearance of his grandmother. Mysteriously, her picture appeared in a recent Arabic newspaper. Richard, intrigued, decides to center his investigations upon "Local Radio's" story. As he delves deeper into their lives he discovers that the ancient rivalries between the Israeli's and Palestinians is far too deep and complex to be easily explained away.