A Refusenik’s Mother (Ima Shel Shimri)
Plus post-film discussion: Director - Ori Ben Dov, Brian Klug (University of Oxford), Yael Friedman, Daphna Baram, Marwan Bishara (Al Jazeera)
Tickets: £3The box office has now closed for this film.
Reflecting some of the deepest dilemmas in Israeli society, this film documents Shimry Moran-Zameret’s refusal to join the Israeli army to do his national service, objecting on moral grounds to what he considers to be an “army of occupation” and determined not to be part of the war in the occupied territories.
In this intensely personal film, a family is divided by the son’s decision. His mother struggles to understand why he can’t simply do what all Israelis have to do and serve his time: “My first thoughts were: what went wrong? Why is my son different? Why can’t he be like all the other boys his age? I argued with him, and did whatever I could to change his mind. I was afraid of the punishment and the consequences of his decision on his future.”
Slowly her views change as she and her son become more involved in the political and public struggle to re-evaluate the role of all Israelis in the peace and security of the region.
Director: Ori Ben Dov
Cinematographer: Hillel Nave
Music: Daniel meir / Hillal Zahar / Yochai Kai Ben Dov
Country: Israel
Length: 50 minutes
Official film website
When I turned 18, I was drafted to the Israeli Army. I didn’t ask any questions: That was the law, and that was the norm. It was the days of the first Intifada (Palestinian Uprise) and the IDF still had forces in South Lebanon. Heavy questions about the army and it’s role is Israeli society could have been asked –
but I didn’t ask them.
More than ten years later I met Shimri Tzameret. A young man, who just turned 18. Shimri decided to ask those hard questions. He refused to be drafted and was charged in a court martial. I remember asking myself how come I haven’t even thought about those dilemmas before I gave the army 3 years of my life. I don’t know what would have happened if I had done that back then. maybe I would have been drafted after all – but the fact is I didn’t even thought about it. Shimri is the exception in Israel.
But when I learned about Shimri’s background, and I understood that his mother opposed his actions, I knew this is a story that should be documented. Beyond the big and important issues, beyond politics and moral, I found a profound prenatal dilemma with a universal quality. So Marit, Simri’s mother, became my heroin.
We all raise our children to think and to be independent – but what happens when they become too independent? When they go and act against out beliefs?
These is the theme that interested me when I came to do “A Refusenik’s Mother”. In the background there’s a hugh political drama, but the emotional heart of the movie lies there, with that mother who has to face her son hard choices.