The Israel Film Fund Collection

Green Fields

92 Minutes, 1989
Genre:
Feature

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Cast: Sharon Hacohen Bar
Production:David Tour
Production Company:Nachshon Films
Photographer: Gadi Danzig
Original Music: Adi Rennert
Language: Hebrew
| Subtitles not available

Three generations of one family who also represent three generations of Israeli society, as a whole, travel to a military base in the Occupied Territories to mark the end of the son’s basic training. Sitting together in the car are the young soldier, his new girlfriend, his father who immigrated to the US following his divorce from his son’s mother, and the father’s new wife – a Berkeley University alum who sits firmly on the left side of the political spectrum. Rounding off the “passenger manifest” are grandma and granddad, the latter of whom cut his son off over his decision to emigrate.
They drive through an Arab village and find themselves at the heart of the conflict – stepping right into the violence of the first Intifada. When a group of Palestinian stone throwers attack them, the family members manage to flee the village and find shelter in the surrounding green fields. Ultimately, the political conflict goes unresolved, as do the interpersonal conflicts between members of the family.
Green Fields is the first Israeli film to have to have tackled the late 1980s’ Intifada. Like Yeshurun’s other films, here too the personal and political are intertwined; Israel’s ever-changing reality slowly seeps into the family unit, altering and transforming it from within. At the end of the film, in a Goddard-esque act of filmmaking, the illusion fades in one fell swoop when reality is at once invaded by film.
Yeshurun’s film was shown at multiple festivals around the world, including the Berlin International Film Festival where it made the official selection for the prestigious Panorama section. Green Fields took home a Wolgin Prize for Best Film and Best Director at the Jerusalem Film Festival, and a Golden Bird award at the Rio De Janeiro International Film Festival.

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