5 Broken Cameras

Review by Courtney Blankenship

The short:

A 2011 documentary utilizing the film footage of a Palestinian father, Emad Burnat, living in the West Bank as he films daily life for his family and village under military occupation. Throughout the film, viewers see him go through five different cameras as each one gets destroyed.

The long:

Winning several awards at international film festivals, the documentary chronicles the attempts of Bil'in villagers to non-violently resist the bulldozing of their olive trees and the seizure of their land by settlers to put in place a separation barrier. Having gotten his first camera to record home movies of his sons as they grew older, Emad also captured footage of protests in his village that had become a regular component of their everyday lives, as well as clashes with the Israeli Army as his friends and other villagers were arrested. Each of Emad’s five cameras gets broken, giving the film its name.

To watch or not to watch:

This movie is a must-see as it provides a personal window into the lives of Emad’s family members, showcasing their everyday lives– the beauty and the challenges. Emad’s four sons each experienced different childhoods in terms of how free or restricted their movement was in the West Bank, with his eldest son being born in 1995 “in the time of hope after the Oslo Peace Accords.” In his eldest son’s childhood, Emad said things were more open, and the family was able to visit the sea each summer. His second oldest son was born three years later “in a time of uncertainty,” and his third son was born the day the Second Intifada began in 2000, so his childhood was shaped by the aftermath. He gets his first camera to film his youngest son, Gibreel, who was born in February 2005, and Emad describes each camera as representing a different episode of his life.