The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation

Filmmaker and video artist Avi Mograbi was born in 1956 in Tel Aviv, where he lives and works. He grew up in a family of European and Arab Jewish emigrants – his grandfather, who came from Damascus, founded one of the first cinemas in Tel Aviv – in a Zionist environment from which he emancipated himself during his studies of art and philosophy.
When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, he refused to join the army’s combat units. This experience informs several of his films, which deal with the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, showing those who carry it out or suffer it on the ground, in the banality of a murderous daily life.
A committed documentary filmmaker, he is constantly experimenting with new visual forms, presenting himself as director and character in films in which he is also often the sound recordist, second cameraman, producer or scriptwriter.
His filmography, which includes several feature-length films (How I Learned to Overcome my Fear and Love Arik Sharon, 1997; Avenge But One of My Two Eyes, 2005; Z 32, 2008; Once I Entered a Garden, 2012) has been shown and acclaimed at the biggest festivals, from Cannes to Berlin, via Venice and Marseille.