Similarities and contradictions in conflicts

People on different sides of a conflict don’t always realise how similar their lives and suffering can be. Sensitive to the question, the director of the film went about a photographic experience in Hebron and the West Bank. He gave two cameras to two families, one Palestinian and the other Israeli, who lived on either side of the separation wall, only metres from one another, so that they could portray their everyday lives. When they had finished, he swapped the reports and showed them to the other family. Both parties were surprised to realise how close and familiar they were to one another, thus changing the way they perceived the “enemy” in their minds.

This is an example of how art can help to address a reality that affects us. Art can appropriate itself of realities to give a personal vision. This film demonstrates the absurd from a human and burlesque angle, where a pig plays the part of a “dove of peace”. And what unites the two territories in the film is precisely their shared rejection of the pig, even if both are interested in what the animal has to offer them.

Film: When Pigs Have Wings