DOCUMENTARY | 1991 | 97 MN | COLOR | 4:3 | o.v HEBREW | st ENGLISH

Izkor means "remember" in Hebrew and this film looks in depth at this imperative that is imposed on the children of Israel. In Israel during the month of April feast days and celebrations take place one after another. School children of all ages prepare to pay tribute to their country's past. The collective memory becomes a terribly efficient tool for the training of young minds.

Izkor, is a portrait of the Israeli society that has never been shown before, thirty days in the life of a State that lives to the rhythm of its memory. This award-winning film puts forward a passionate and severe analysis of the Hebrew state.

IZKOR, SLAVES OF MEMORY by Eyal Sivan

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IZKOR, is a portrait of the Israeli society that had never been shown before, thirty days in the life of a State that lives to the rhythm of its memory. This award-winning film puts forward a passionate and severe analysis of the Hebrew state.

“IZKOR,” means "remember" in Hebrew and this film looks in depth at this imperative that is imposed on the children of Israel. In Israel during the month of April feast days and celebrations take place one after another. School children of all ages prepare to pay tribute to their country's past. The collective memory becomes a terribly efficient tool for the training of young minds.

In Israel, “Never again” is not just a slogan, it's a “mantra”. It is an atmosphere, an ever present cloud, a widespread fear, touching every aspect of daily life, reason, opinions, creativity and choices people make for the future. Though Israel has been under the media spotlight since its creation, it is still a mystery to many observers. Its survival raises moral problems for some, and malicious speculation in others. But it is precisely on account this survival issue that the identity and determination of the population were forgotten.

Key words : Education, Holocaust, Institutions, Israel, Memory, Nationalism, Nazism, Zionism
Education Interest : Education, Film and Media, Genocide Studies, Israeli Studies, Jewish studies, Political Science, Visual Anthropology, Visual Art
Eyal Sivan, is a documentary filmmaker and theoretician based in Paris
Born in 1964 in Haifa Israel and grow up in Jerusalem.

After exercising as a professional photographer in Tel-Aviv, he leaves Israel in 1985 and settled in Paris. Since he is sharing is time between Europe and Israel.

Known for his controversial films, Sivan directed more than 10 worldwide awarded political documentaries and produced many others. His cinematographic body of work was shown and awarded various prizes in prestigious festivals. Beside worldwide theatrical releases and TV broadcasts, Sivan's films are regularly exhibit in major art shows around the world.

He publishes and lectures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, documentary filmmaking and ethics, political crimes and representation, political use of memory, genocide and representation, etc.

He is the founder and artistic director of the Paris based documentary films production company momento! and the film distribution agency Scalpel. He is the founder and Chief Editor of South Cinema Notebooks - a journal of cinema and political critic edited by the Sapir academic college in Israel where he lectures regularly.

In the last years Sivan was Reader (associate professor) in media production at the school of Arts and Digital Industries (ADI), at the University of East London (UEL) were he was co-leading the MA program in Film, video and new media. He his teaching at the Master in Film at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. He is member of the editorial board of the Paris based publishing house La Fabrique.

"Eyal Sivan continues his relentless and disturbing work, from film to film, investigating thre true nature of his native country. Any study of memory, of history, of values, of the myths of Israel confronted with reality, depends, of course, and perhaps above all, for Eyal Sivan on getting to know your opponent. In this case, the enemy / partner over the last 50 years, the palestinian people."
- Le Nouvel Observateur
“Izkor offers the viewer a disquieting sense of the intensely ideological role of the Israeli educational system” OU “Izkor is a remarkable portrait of the Israeli educational system, but the sort of indoctrination in nationalist mythology that you criticize goes on in every country.”
Cineaste

"It is not difficult to understand why Sivan's film has offended some people. Certain memories have attained the status of sacred cows and any viewpoint not totally reverential to them may be considered taboo. Sivan implies no disrespect to either the memories or the events they preserve, but is questioning the methods used in ensuring them for the future. A sacred cow not open to questioning must be considered suspect by an alert mind.“
The Jerusalem Post

“Courageous film”
Les Cahiers du Cinéma

"Izkor is an hypercritical vision of the educational system of Israel. It is illustrated by the thoughts of professor Leibovitz who points out an extensive use of the memory of the past in order to justify the present actions."
Jewish Press Agency

"These two hours won't leave anyone unharmed."
L'Express

IZKOR, SLAVES OF MEMORY by Eyal Sivan

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