Infiltrators
a 70 min feature documentary
by Khaled Jarrar
MARCH 26 2024
6:30PM-9PM
612 Schermerhorn Hall
1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Join us for a the Film Screening of the “INFILTRATORS” followed by a discussion with Director Khaled Jarrar & Dr Ali Musleh.
Synopsis:
The checkpoint is closed: “Detour, detour!” shouts a taxi driver, announcing the beginning of yet another uncertain search for a way around the barriers curtailing Palestinian movement in the West Bank.
Infiltrators is a visceral “road movie” that chronicles the daily travails of Palestinians of all backgrounds as they seek routes through, under, around, and over a bewildering matrix of barriers.
Following this high stakes “game” of cat and mouse with a handheld video camera, Khaled Jarrarʼs debut documentary was the standout success at the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival, winning the Muhr Arab Documentary Prize, the Special Jury Prize, and the International Critics Prize.
Directorʼs Statement
My first encounter with the topic started in 2008, when I was doing a photography project in a tunnel which starts in the Palestinian side of the wall, I knew the other end of the tunnel was closed, but suddenly it was opened, and more than 400 people crossed in half an hour, I followed them to find myself on the other side of the wall.
Since then, I start to follow with my camera cases for Palestinian infiltrating the wall, trying to understand the motives and the methods followed by these people, that are happy to be called the Infiltrators.
Through this journey I discover the underworld of the smugglers, who were working as taxi drivers before and lost their jobs after the wall was built, they find a way to surviving and go around the wall and its laws, making more profit than before.
It took me a long time to film some people trying to make a hole in the wall, or find a weak point on the fence to cut and jump through, but when I met some smuggles they opened a whole world for me, itʼs a forbidden material, and the main condition was not to film their faces, so the main characters of the film are not be visible, only close ups on some elements related to them...
In the 4 year productions of this film, I followed story after story, getting fascinated by the ability to survive and perform normal life in such circumstances, proving the failure of the Israeli security theories, and an evidence of the impossibility to lock a whole nation within a wall...this film is documenting the way out.
Director Biography
Khaled Jarrar (Palestine)
Khaled Jarrar, born in Jenin, completed his studies in Interior design at the Palestine Polytechnic University in 1996, and then entered the field of photography in 2004. In 2011 he graduated as visual artist from the International Academy of Art - Palestine. His first exhibition took place in public space at the checkpoints of Howarra and Qalandya. Jarrar started making films and videos in 2008, among them “Journey 110”. He took part in international art events such as Art Basel 41, Instant video, London Film Festival, the International Contemporary Art Fair “FIAC” in Paris,Berlin Biennale 7 in 2012 and Sharjah Biennial 11 in 2013.
