New review: Open Bethlehem

Electronic Intifada, 11th December 2014

As a set of street interviews which accompany the closing credits of Open Bethlehem show, plenty of people in the modern West have no idea where or what Bethlehem is. It represents just a name from the story of the birth of Christianity. Some are unsure whether it really exists or existed; if they do recognize it as a living city, they think it might be “in Africa” or — getting closer — “somewhere near Egypt.”
Leila Sansour’s film presents a highly personal portrait of her father’s native city and of her own love/hate relationship with it. It intertwines three narratives: that of Bethlehem as a historical city, of Sansour herself and that of the Open Bethlehem campaign, an effort to raise the profile of the city as it is encircled by Israel’s wall and literally dozens of settlements.

The full review is here.