Origin: Palestine | Documentary | Director: Rashid Masharawi | 26 minutes

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Tension

Rashid Masharawi 1998 Docu 26 min.

Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi (Waiting and Laila's Birthday)
conveys the palpable sense of tension that he perceives below the surface
of daily life for the Palestinian population during the period of the
"peace process." The film focuses on the act of observation itself,
eschewing spoken dialogue altogether for a narrative that is produced
rather through the editing of images, music, and incidental sounds on the
track. Tension is organized around the natural cycle of sunrise and sunset,
restated in terms of another "natural" work cycle: the many waves of
Palestinian day workers who move through gates and checkpoints to labour in
Israel and return each evening. This is a far too rarely seen work of
exceptional quality by one of Palestine's foremost directors.