Towards Jerusalem
Ruth Beckermann: Keep the Camera Rolling • 1h 26m
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1990 - Austria
What became of the dream of the Jewish homeland? A still relevant documentary road movie shot along the highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Trucks, gas stations, construction workers, soldiers, Russian immigrants, taxi drivers, security guards: encounters along a 60 kilometer stretch of road bounded by diverse landscapes and personal histories. Everyday reality still echoes with the centuries old longing for Jerusalem, for which there is no real place to be found.
"The land which TOWARDS JERUSALEM presents is indeed one of great vitality, yet it has also been americanised far beyond the limits of kitsch, and furthermore is characterised by bitter poverty. The film-maker lets herself drift and is not determined to to have her prejudices confirmed; she decides to simply look around and listen out, regardless of what might happen: Ruth Beckermann’s open eyes are a sign of her love for the world." Stefan Grissemann, En face, in: europamemoria, 2003
Up Next in Ruth Beckermann: Keep the Camera Rolling
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East of War
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1996 - Austria
White-tiled rooms, neon lighting, on the walls the black and white photographs of the exhibition “War of Extermination”, which documents the atrocities committed by the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Against this background, Ruth Beckermann films for...
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A Fleeting Passage to the Orient
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1999 - Austria
An essay film about Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s attempts to vanish from the picture. A film about Orientalism and of a woman on the road. Shot in Egypt, the film features a text written by the filmmaker and music from the Kronos-Quartet. The camera slips ...
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Homemad(e)
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 84min - 2001 - Austria
Marc-Aurel-Street in Vienna: here you’ll find the few remaining Jewish merchants in the former textile quarter, the Iranian hotel keeper, and Café Salzgries with its regulars. Ruth Beckermann spent a year undertaking a series of small journeys in fro...
