206 minutes / Color/B&W
Swedish; English; Arabic; Hebrew / English subtitles
Closed Captioned
Release: 2025
Copyright: 2024
“We only get worse and kill them more and more. Then they do the same thing.” — an Israeli child, 1988
Television broadcasting debuted in Sweden in 1957. And Swedish public broadcaster SVT began covering Israel and Palestine almost from day one.
In ISRAEL PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989, filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson (The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975) masterfully weaves together some of this footage, telling the story of the rise of the Israeli state and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination — as seen by Swedish media.
For the first decade, SVT coverage is mostly positive. There is a sense of affinity for Israel’s collective efforts in agriculture, housing, medicine, and what is then openly called colonization. But over time the Palestinians move from the sidelines to center stage. There is hope, there is confusion, there is disillusionment and despair.
ISRAEL PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989 features interviews with key political and military figures, and highlights historic events like the Six Day War, the 1972 Munich Olympic attack, the first Intifada, and the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. But the film also shares more intimate, rarely seen stories. We meet Palestinian resistance fighters training in the desert, a Bedouin Israeli with torn allegiances, idealistic Swedish peacekeepers, and West Bank journalists trying to put out their paper under strict censorship.
Olsson draws on material from a variety of programs — interview shows, investigative reportage, news stories, magazine-style pieces and even children’s programming. The result is an illuminating look at a changing media landscape and the framing of one of the most significant and intractable conflicts of our times.
“A mammoth work on war and the media.” —Il Manifesto (Italy)
“An astonishing, invaluable document of the history of Israel and Palestine, and a fascinating insight into the complicated nature of journalism.” —The National (Abu Dhabi)
“This monumental documentary filters over 30 years of public service broadcasting archive, creating a portrait of how the Middle East conflict was reported in Sweden. Göran Hugo Olsson’s epic panorama of violence, disaster and political oration is woven together with reflective sequences that provide an evolving perspective that’s all too timely for the West today.” —BFI London Film Festival (England)
“A tool and a source to better understand this conflict. And consequently, to tell its story better.” —Framed Magazine (Italy)
“A huge, historical document.” —Micropsia Cine (Argentina)
“Challenges viewers to consider the contradictions… and doesn’t resort to oversimplification by providing solutions like most mainstream media.” —Overly Honest Reviews (United States)
“Unfolds in rhythm with the passage of time… Punctures all the simplistic arguments.” —Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden)
“Without these testimonies, we risk the war resembling mere theater.” —Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden)
“A study of a changing media landscape… and a critique of the historical ignorance of our time.” —Upsala Nya Tidning (Sweden)
Select Accolades
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Director Ilan Ziv traces the origins of today's antisemitism in France from the Middle Ages to the infamous Dreyfus Affair.
Ilan Ziv | 2022 | 120 minutes | Color | French; English; Hebrew | English subtitles | Closed Captioned
Two films that provide a uniquely comprehensive, intimate and moving portrait of one of the great and lasting thinkers of the 20th century.
252 minutes | Color | English
The story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world – what it once was, what it is now, and what it could have become.
Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland | 2024 | 79 minutes | Color | Arabic; Hebrew | English subtitles
After the creation of Israel in 1948, Palestinians who chose to remain on their land were banded into farming communities. But most of this land has since been lost to Israeli kibbutz and moshav settlements.
Antonia Caccia | 1981 | 55 minutes | Color
The story of Palestine from the nineteenth century through current times.
Simone Bitton | 1996 | 120 minutes | Color | English
