Detained

In the centre of Hebron, three Palestinian widows and their eleven children live in absurd conditions. Since 1997, their house has been located exactly on the border: the front falls under Israeli command, the Palestinian authorities rule the back. There is an Israeli military post on the roof and the stairwell also teems with soldiers. The women are not allowed to cross the border, so they are prisoners in their own home. One of the three, who became a widow when she was only twenty-four, explains how in the meantime she has become ‘sick of life’. She has to clean the mess the soldiers leave behind, the neighbourhood spreads gossip about her and she has to raise her children all by herself – something that no longer gives her any pleasure whatsoever, she says with bewildering candour. She feels ‘buried, broken within, wounded.’ (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)