Censored Voices

In June 1967, Israel and its Arab neighbors spent six days at war. The Israeli victory resulted in Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip, the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. A week later, a group of kibbutz inhabitants led by Avraham Shapira and author Amos Oz recorded a series of candid interviews with returning soldiers. The recordings were censored by the Israeli army and 70 percent of them were never made public. This film features them, uncensored, for the very first time. Director Mor Loushy accompanies the interviews with a selection of archive material: from propaganda songs to international news reports. She also films the veterans years later as they listen to the recordings of their own stories for the very first time. We don't get their verbal reactions, but their facial expressions say it all. The interviews constitute the universal story of the horrors of war. The soldiers speak of the fear they felt, their shock and their pity or contempt for the enemy. They also convey their ambivalence to the war. This is the tragic paradox of a people in search of freedom who become the occupiers.