Checkpoint (2003 film)
Encyclopedia
Checkpoint is a 2003 documentary film
by Israel
i filmmaker Yoav Shamir
, showing the everyday interaction between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian
civilians at several of the regions Israel Defence Forces checkpoints. The film won five awards at various film festivals, including Best International Documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, best feature-length documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival
. Although the film was generally well received, it was also controversial and reactions from audience members and critics were sometimes very angry.
style with no narration and very little context. Shamir himself is absent from the film except for one scene in which a border guard asks him to try to make him "look good," and Shamir asks how he should do that.
The camera films people trying to cross at various checkpoints. At some, such as the high-tech fortress like that at the Gaza Strip
crossing there are hundreds of people crowded, waiting to get through. At others such as at South Jenin there is just a truck blocking the road while Palestinians trickle by. Interactions vary, ranging from mundane to mildly frustrating to maddening in their unfairness. Sometimes people show their identification cards without incident but much of what Shamir has chosen to include are the messier incidences. A school bus full of kids (averaging around eight years old) the viewer sees several times and passes at South Jenin quite regularly (the bus driver says everyday) is emptied and told that it cannot proceed. A family is separated because a border guard does not see the need for the father to accompany his family to the doctor
because he is not sick. A woman sends her crying children back home on their own because their papers are not in order. Hundreds ignore soldiers at one place and walk through to town, many carrying nothing but groceries. On the way to Nablus
an ambulance
is stopped and each passenger is forced to explain what their need for treatment is. Sometimes the soldiers are obviously playing around with the people they are monitoring but often it seems that they are following arbitrary orders outside their control. The situation is only worsened by the fact that rarely does either party speak the same language: The entire film is spoken in patches of Arabic
, Hebrew
and English
.
awards, including Best Feature Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Best International Documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival
.
Checkpoint and its Crucial Cinematic Role
Checkpoint as well as the other three transition site-premised films (Ben-Gurion: Gr’aad and Levenberg, 1997, Borders: Riklis & Kaydar, 2001
and Close, Closed, Closure: Directed and Written by Ram Loevy in 2003) has the unique narrative structure integral of the sub-genre
“road movies” –focusing on point A to point B. These transition sites (i.e. airports,
checkpoints and frontier posts) are thus, the center of the films’ events or journeys. As
the transition site-premised films rely on transience between two points within a certain
space rather than within a designated place, they have adopted the characteristic
‘placelessness.’ Furthermore, these sites –the Israeli checkpoints, specifically -indicate
structural tension between being penetrable (passable) and impenetrable (impassable)
thus creating a distinction between the “Us” and “Them” persons at the in-between
spaces.+
Controversial Issues
There are some controversial issues in the film. While Palestinians are shown as victims of the unjust system of border control in Checkpoint, Israelis are also victims of Palestinian terror in real life. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs report Four Years of Conflict: Israel's War Against Terrorism states that more than 800 Israelis were killed and around 5,000 Israelis were injured during the years Checkpoint was filmed. Moreover, the guards shown in the film as abusive and terrorizing regularly stop suicide bombers and weapon smugglers at checkpoints. Also, the report says that women who are universally considered not engaging in terror and represented in the film as victimized by the Palestinian guards are the ones who frequently carry out suicide bombings and exploit mentally disabled children for that purpose.
Source:
+Zanger, Anat. "Blind Space: Roadblock Movies in the Contemporary Film." Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 24.1 (2005): 37-48. American University Library. Web.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs report Four Years of Conflict: Israel's war against terrorism. Report. Web. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+and+Islamic+Fundamentalism-/Four+Years+of+Conflict+3-Oct-2004.htm
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
by Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i filmmaker Yoav Shamir
Yoav Shamir
' is an Israeli documentary filmmaker most noted for the films Checkpoint and Defamation. Shamir's films have received awards from independent film festivals including Best Feature Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Best International Documentary at the Hot Docs...
, showing the everyday interaction between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
civilians at several of the regions Israel Defence Forces checkpoints. The film won five awards at various film festivals, including Best International Documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, best feature-length documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest continuously running film festival in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the International is held each spring for two weeks, presenting an average of 150 films from over 50 countries...
. Although the film was generally well received, it was also controversial and reactions from audience members and critics were sometimes very angry.
Synopsis
Checkpoint is shot in cinéma véritéCinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
style with no narration and very little context. Shamir himself is absent from the film except for one scene in which a border guard asks him to try to make him "look good," and Shamir asks how he should do that.
The camera films people trying to cross at various checkpoints. At some, such as the high-tech fortress like that at the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
crossing there are hundreds of people crowded, waiting to get through. At others such as at South Jenin there is just a truck blocking the road while Palestinians trickle by. Interactions vary, ranging from mundane to mildly frustrating to maddening in their unfairness. Sometimes people show their identification cards without incident but much of what Shamir has chosen to include are the messier incidences. A school bus full of kids (averaging around eight years old) the viewer sees several times and passes at South Jenin quite regularly (the bus driver says everyday) is emptied and told that it cannot proceed. A family is separated because a border guard does not see the need for the father to accompany his family to the doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
because he is not sick. A woman sends her crying children back home on their own because their papers are not in order. Hundreds ignore soldiers at one place and walk through to town, many carrying nothing but groceries. On the way to Nablus
Nablus
Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...
an ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
is stopped and each passenger is forced to explain what their need for treatment is. Sometimes the soldiers are obviously playing around with the people they are monitoring but often it seems that they are following arbitrary orders outside their control. The situation is only worsened by the fact that rarely does either party speak the same language: The entire film is spoken in patches of Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Awards
The film received five festivalFilm festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
awards, including Best Feature Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Best International Documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest continuously running film festival in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the International is held each spring for two weeks, presenting an average of 150 films from over 50 countries...
.
Checkpoint and its Crucial Cinematic Role
Checkpoint as well as the other three transition site-premised films (Ben-Gurion: Gr’aad and Levenberg, 1997, Borders: Riklis & Kaydar, 2001
and Close, Closed, Closure: Directed and Written by Ram Loevy in 2003) has the unique narrative structure integral of the sub-genre
“road movies” –focusing on point A to point B. These transition sites (i.e. airports,
checkpoints and frontier posts) are thus, the center of the films’ events or journeys. As
the transition site-premised films rely on transience between two points within a certain
space rather than within a designated place, they have adopted the characteristic
‘placelessness.’ Furthermore, these sites –the Israeli checkpoints, specifically -indicate
structural tension between being penetrable (passable) and impenetrable (impassable)
thus creating a distinction between the “Us” and “Them” persons at the in-between
spaces.+
Controversial Issues
There are some controversial issues in the film. While Palestinians are shown as victims of the unjust system of border control in Checkpoint, Israelis are also victims of Palestinian terror in real life. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs report Four Years of Conflict: Israel's War Against Terrorism states that more than 800 Israelis were killed and around 5,000 Israelis were injured during the years Checkpoint was filmed. Moreover, the guards shown in the film as abusive and terrorizing regularly stop suicide bombers and weapon smugglers at checkpoints. Also, the report says that women who are universally considered not engaging in terror and represented in the film as victimized by the Palestinian guards are the ones who frequently carry out suicide bombings and exploit mentally disabled children for that purpose.
Source:
+Zanger, Anat. "Blind Space: Roadblock Movies in the Contemporary Film." Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 24.1 (2005): 37-48. American University Library. Web.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs report Four Years of Conflict: Israel's war against terrorism. Report. Web. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+and+Islamic+Fundamentalism-/Four+Years+of+Conflict+3-Oct-2004.htm