BOND/360 is releasing theatrically THE SETTLERS, New York filmmaker Shimon Dotan’s timely look at the controversial Israeli settlement movement.
laying at the 2016 Sundance and New York film fests, THE SETTLERS will open on Friday, March 17 at the Laemmle Monica in Los Angeles following a March 3r elease at New York’s Film Forum.
In June 1967, at the end of the Six-Day War, Israel tripled its territory, occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank. Hundreds of thousands of settlers have made homes in these Occupied Territories since that time — their presence making a peace agreement with the Palestinians more complex.
THE SETTLERS offers a rare, inside look at this diverse “movement,” comprised of opportunistic families seeking less costly living conditions to Western-style hippies; messianic, religious extremists to idealistic farmers; settler “patriarchs” to new converts.
Israeli intellectuals, politicos, and academics weigh in on this conundrum: How can approximately a half-million people be allowed to stand in the way of a Middle Eastern peace settlement the world so desperately needs?
Timely, relevant, and provocative, THE SETTLERS provides a close-up examination of the motives, personalities, ideologies, actions, and effects of a socio-political phenomenon that has been going for half a century, from 1967 to the present.
About the director
Shimon Dotan is a Fellow at the New York Institute of the Humanities and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship award. His films have been the recipients of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance (HOT HOUSE), the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival (THE SMILE OF THE LAMB), and numerous Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. He has taught filmmaking and film studies at Tel Aviv University, Concordia University and is presently teaching Political Cinema at New York University and Film Directing at the New School.