Ford Transit

Colour, 35 mm
Netherlands, 2002, 80 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Hundreds of white Ford Transit vans, which were formerly used by the Israeli army, started being used as a taxi service connecting Ramalla with East Jerusalem. The only vehicle permitted to travel through the occupied territories, it is used daily by hundreds of passengers who are forced to leave their cars at barricades demarcating the well guarded area. The Palestinian director of this gripping documentary road movie selected one of the drivers – a young man named Rajai – to "star" in his film. He himself road shotgun with his camera pointed towards the passengers, recording comments on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He then interlinked them with shots of Rajai’s daily struggle behind the wheel, the passengers’ authentic reactions, and, as if by accident, snippets of the tense world surrounding the Ford’s route. This extraordinary film had its world premiere at the 2002 International Festival of Documentary Film in Amsterdam (IDFA), and was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the Thessaloniki documentary festival.

About the director

Hany Abu-Assad debuted with the short Paper House, awarded at the Jerusalem IFF, among others. In addition to producing his colleagues’ films, he directed the feature The Fourteenth Chick in 1998, which was selected to open the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht. Rana’s Wedding, produced by his own Augustus Film (established with Bruno Beyer in 2000), was awarded many prizes and was screened as part of the Cannes International Critics’ Week in 2002. Selected filmography: To Whom It May Concern, director (1991, doc.), Long Days in Gaza, producer (1991, doc.), Curfew, producer (1993), The 13th, writer, director and producer (1997, short), The Arabs of 2001, director (2000, doc.), Nazareth, director (2000, doc.), Ford Transit, director (2002, doc.).