http://www.lidf.co.uk London International Documentary Festival Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:15:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.lidf.co.uk/lidf09/films/a-refusniks-mother/#comment-6 OriBenDov Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:09:23 +0000 http://www.lidf.co.uk/lidf09/films/a-refusniks-mother/#comment-6 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. 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.

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