The Israel Film Service Collection

Biku - Man of Tiberias

7 Minutes, 1986
Genre:
Documentary

  • Rate
Directed by: Danny Verete
Production Company:Israel Film Service
Photographer: Alon Bernstein
Language: Hebrew
| Subtitles not available

This short documentary film, presented as part of the “A Man and a Place” series produced by the Israel Film Service, follows Biku, a born-and-raised resident of Tiberias who became the first lifeguard at Lido Beach, the first recreational beach in Tiberias. After having grown up in a mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood during the British Mandate, Biku began working for the British Army when he turned 18, until said army departed and left him disabled and unemployed. Biku decided to make a living off of the water and trained to become a swimming instructor, which led him to his job as the Lido Beach lifeguard. Over the years – which were packed with good times, water polo games, wine bottles and surfboards – Biku taught numerous generations of Tiberias residents how to swim and water-ski. In addition to his roles as lifeguard, swimming instructor and water-skiing instructor, he also became a photographer and a kind of therapist, thanks to his acquaintance with everyone’s life stories in Tiberias, up to and including those of the tourists. Even after his childhood neighborhood has become an unrecognizable hotel complex, and even as Biku works as a pool lifeguard at a hotel built on the ruins of his parents’ home, he does not look back with anger or with bitterness – only with nostalgia for the good old days.

Subscribe to our mailing list and stay up to date
הירשמו לרשימת התפוצה שלנו והישארו מעודכנים

This will close in 0 seconds