Documentary is alive in Pesaro
The 43rd Mostra internazionale del nuovo cinema di Pesaro starts from the documentary: if European films are not living their best period (says the Festival Artistic Director, Giovanni Spagnoletti) not fictional movies are able to tell us about Europe with unexpected vitality. And they receive awards from overseas.
Hot House by Shimon Dotan shows that. After having been awarded with the Special Prize of the Jury at the last Sundance Film Festival, the film opens SOS Europa.doc, the new section of Pesaro dedicated to those areas of forced removal of our common conscience, to suburbs– not only geographically speaking –out of sight.
The documentary persist in showing a journey out of the frame that starts from Israel: from high security prisons where eight thousands Palestinian serve (often) a life sentence. Dotan (active in the US since many years) goes back to his homeland in order to show the prisons condition of those people involved in the politic and social scene of his country. By telling their stories, the film reveals a population that seamlessly feels captive and that knows very well that reclusion is the common destiny of their nation, wounded in every domestic microcosm. Like a prison guard says: "every Palestinian has had, has or will have a relative in jail".
Produced by the French Alma Films (that is also the International distributor), Cinequest Films and in collaboration with ARTE, Hot House, after its premiere at Jerusalem Film Festival 2006, won the Chicago International Documentary Festival competition.
(Translated from Italian)
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