< Back

The Dove Flyer

Directed by: Nissim Dayan
108 Minutes, 2013, Drama; Other Israel Film Festival

As a child, Eli Amir was torn from his community in Baghdad and educated in Mishmar HaEmek, where erasing his past was just part of the process of turning him into an Israeli. This film, based on a book of the same name, is narrated by a teenage protagonist named Kabi, and depicts the final years of the Jewish community in Baghdad before its expulsion and resettlement in Israel in the 1950s. When his uncle Hizkel is arrested and imprisoned, Kabi sets off to find him, joining the Zionist underground. The film paints a portrait of a family living in a world full of contradictions and ambivalent relationships; it illustrates the complex existence of the Jewish community in Iraq, which had strong ties to the surrounding Muslim world and Arabic culture, yet simultaneously feared for its safety. It pays tribute to the nearly 130,000 Jews who fled Iraq, never to be the same again.

Watch on other platforms:

Credits

Director: Nissim Dayan

Producer: Nissim Dayan