Naman Ramachandran Guy Davidi, known for Sundance and Emmy winning and Oscar nominated documentary “Five Broken Cameras,” is Venice bound with his next film “Innocence.” The film, which is in the festival’s Horizons strand, the only documentary selected in the section, tells the story of children who were unwillingly enlisted into the Israel military service, and many of them died.
Through a narration based on their diaries, the film depicts their inner turmoil and interweaves first-hand military images, key moments from childhood until enlistment and home videos of the deceased soldiers. “Nothing touches me more than a child’s sensitivity when they discover the world, and nothing hurts me more than seeing it getting crushed.
Israel is not a place that values innocence. Its militarized identity requires the breaking down and distorting of the gentle lines of childhood.
This commitment to violence has many victims, but there’s also a hidden tragedy – the collapse of parenthood,” says Davidi in his director’s note on the film, which has been 10 years in the making. “Every war relies on parents’ betrayal of their children.
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