Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Göran Hugo Olsson / Sweden, Finland & Denmark / 2024 / 206 min

Set aside a couple of hours to immerse yourself in the seven-decade-long conflict between Israel and Palestine, which over the past year and a half has wedged itself in everywhere, but which has a long and deep history. That history unfolds from a very particular angle in a film that consists entirely of material from the Swedish TV archive over 40 years, arranged chronologically with exemplary clarity. The Swedish journalists did what they could to be impartial in their coverage ever since Israel was a young state, and the result is a historically invaluable document that is also very skillfully filmed in rich detail. Each episode is dated and put into context. As a text says at the beginning: Archival material cannot necessarily tell us what happened, but it can tell us a lot about how the story was told. And more than that: With a commendable overview, the director of ‘Black Power Mixtape 1967-75’ has created a film that will itself go down in history. And yes, it’s long, but you hardly notice the time passing.