News from Home / News from House

Gitai returns twice to the location of his first long documentary House (1980): in 1998 for A House in Jerusalem and in 2006 for the final part of the trilogy, in which he once again attempts to be an archaeologist of human destinies. The house is once again transformed from a concrete building in West Jerusalem into a powerful symbol for the fate of an entire country whose inhabitants constantly doubt the right of others to claim the same physical - or even mental - space. Gitai's news of this malaise remains true to his intention of initiating a dialog: He remains steadfast in his belief that all reconciliation relies on the necessity of remembering. That is why he films the same people again and again, with the conscious and loving intention of passing on their fates, their bodies, their faces to posterity. (Jurij Meden)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum