Ma’loul fête sa destruction

For many years, the first inhabitants of Ma’loul, a Palestinian village in Galilee destroyed by Israel after the 1948 war, were only authorised to return to their former village once a year, on Israeli Independence Day. The film follows them on that day, revealing a world of painful memories and the villagers’ determination to cling to their ancestral land. The village elders remember their customs and former properties, whilst the the young are eager to savour their forbidden heritage. Between theses scenes, we see a teacher in a Palestinian classroom explaining to his students the history of Palestine, the Holocaust and the creation of Israel.