Heiners Filmseiten – Zaytoun (en)

Zaytoun

Russian title: Зайтун
Original title: Zaytoun

Alternative titles:
זייתון‎ | زيتون | Zaytoun – Geborene Feinde, echte Freunde‎

War drama – France, United Kingdom, Israel
Production year: 2012
Movie length: 107 minutes

Director: Eran Riklis
Writer: Nader Rizq, Frederick A. Ritzenberg
Cinematograph: Dan Laustsen
Music: Cyril Morin

Movie description:

Beirut, 1982: a young Palestinian refugee and an Israeli fighter pilot form a tentative bond in their attempts to make their way across war-torn Lebanon back to their home.

»Zaytoun« is a heart-warming story of an Israeli fighter pilot who bails out of his plane over Lebanon. He is captured and imprisoned by the Palestinians. Among his captors is a young Palestinian boy, whose mother is dead and whose father is killed shortly after the Israeli pilot is captured. The boy has a burning desire to take a small olive tree that his father had brought from their ancestral village, and plant it in the garden of the family home. However, the village is now in Israel, and to accomplish the task he must make a deal with the pilot, whom he hates, since he has been taught that Israelis are the enemy of his people. The pilot agrees to take the boy back to his ancestral village in exchange for the boy helping him to escape to the Israeli border. The scenes of the countryside, especially along the coastal areas, reminds us of the beauty of the land, and sad that it is consumed with such conflict and violence.
The boy, who is angry and resentful, must learn to trust a hated adversary, and the pilot must cope with trusting a boy whom he believes is the product of a terrorist group. Their flight across rough terrain to reach the Israeli border is an amazing story of how sworn enemies can learn to appreciate the other’s viewpoint. Although the events occur in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War, the tale is very poignant in today’s world. The word »Zaytoun« means »olive« in Palestinian. This film is a must-see.

Boy Actors