Joseph Planta's Commentary - thecommentary.ca

Friday, 17 September 2004

The human side of The Fence

By Joseph Planta

VANCOUVER - "I may love this place for its beauty, for its history, for its power. But I loath it for its incessant reminder of the continued failure of the human spirit." So begins Alexandre Trudeau in his documentary The Fence, which he wrote, produced and narrated, and which will première this Saturday (18 September) at 10.00 pm on CTV. The Fence is a documentary about the season he spent with two families in the West Bank; two families, who live on either side of the security barrier in the Jenin-Afula area.

The conflict between Palestinians and Jews is one that is often ignored, or forgotten, until another suicide bombing or retaliation. The festering of anger and unhappiness by Palestinians often begets terrorism, thus Israelis are forced to erect an electrified fence in the hope that suicide bombers do not cross and maim or kill Israelis. Trudeau takes a political and security issue such as this, to a level where the human side is presented. He lives with an Israeli family, the Atars, who try to live life, firmly cognisant of the fact that they live in a troubled region, and that their security is compromised by their neighbours on the other side of the fence. The Atars, who run a produce business, have a worker, their best as it turns out, and who is from the other side. Rami is trapped, having to work and support his family on one side of the fence while they are on the other. He cannot return, lest he is unable to, thus lose the ability to make money for himself and his family. The dichotomy of this incessant struggle between two proud peoples is borne in the story of Rami, his situation and the family for which he works.

Trudeau, the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is an accomplished filmmaker and journalist. He has reported in Maclean's, and made films about his experiences in Iraq and Liberia. With The Fence, he portrays the conflict between Jews and Arabs in a small place in this world, a place where the struggle is a forbidding reality each and every day. Trudeau, the filmmaker, is skilled in his ability to draw out the characters that he encounters. By carefully placing himself amongst the story, he doesn't become so much a part of the story as he does effect comfort in his subjects that they are able to open up for his cameras. Does Trudeau have his biases? Of course, he does (a couple peek through throughout the film), but they aren't crammed down your throat, as some other documentarians are wont to do, especially with such remarkably explosive issues.

After his stay with the Atars and bringing their situation to the film - their ability to make the best of a bad situation - Trudeau travels to the other side of the fence where in Jenin he will live with a fellow named Areen. Before getting there however he has to go through countless checkpoints, which demonstrate the considerable angst that plagues people who try to co-exist and who because of work, school or otherwise must go back and forth across the fence.

Once in Jenin, Trudeau sees the tremendous dilapidation of the once bustling centre that is now chaotic, awash with closed down businesses, fires in the street, and random gunshots. Areen, listless and without vocation, his father says he's lazy, walks the streets of Jenin, and does anything but. He lifts weights and works out, seemingly the only outlet he has for all his pent up anger and frustration. It all points to the wall, the fence, or whatever it is that the Israelis built and which essentially choked off any possibility for peaceful coexistence, which in the meantime has stifled and stunted any prosperity for people like Areen.

Those that largely ignore this conflict in Israel and Palestine, like this column, do so at their own peril. It is a harrowing situation for all sides, and the fears and frustration of all sides seem to congregate at this fence. Really, the fence is but the physical manifestation of the walls that are built in all their heads. Future generations are ingrained with an idea that both sides can't exist together, which in all honesty is not a barrier so easy to overcome. The idea of winning over the hearts and minds of disgruntled, rioting and murdering Iraqis hasn't been fruitful or successful, thus how can one fathom a compromise between such old, bitter and proud enemies as the one Trudeau presents in this film.

The portrait painted by Alexandre Trudeau is poignant as it is powerful. Trudeau is able to draw out the characters he watches with skill. And rather than proffer solutions or wax on with political theories as to the cause and effect of this conflict, he brings the all-too-important and yet largely overlooked human side to such big issues of our time.

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The Fence, written, produced and narrated by Alexandre Trudeau premieres Saturday, 18 September 2004 at 10.00 pm (ET and PT), on CTV.

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