Screening: The Collaborator and His Family

A chronicle of family, assimilation and espionage that follows the El-Akels, a Palestinian family whose father, Ibrahim, has collaborated with the Israeli security services for 20 years.

Branded as traitors by Palestinians, the entire family fled to Israel to seek asylum as promised by Ibrahim’s Israeli ‘operator.’  As two- and-a-half-years passes with no progress towards the citizenship promised them, tension builds within the family.

It is Ibrahim’s wife Yusra and his three teenage sons and two daughters who bear the consequences of Ibrahim’s decision, while struggling to find their place in Israeli society.

Co-directors Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz gain intimate access to the hardest moments the family face, observing the unravelling of family connections. An unfinching look at the experience of the people who risk their lives to collaborate with an enemy.
 

Awards

Winner of the Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize (The Grand Prize)
Yamagata Documentary Film Festival, Yamagata, Japan, 2011 Visions du Reel, Nyon, Switzerland, 2011 Offcial Selection, HotDocs, Canada 2011 Special Jury Award, DocAviv Documentary Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2011 Research Prize, DocAviv Documentary Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2011 Offcial Selection, Yerevan International Film Festival, Armenia, 2011 Offcial Selection, Antenna International Documentary Film Festival, Sydney, Australia, 2011 Offcial Selection, Viennale International Film Festival, Vienna, Austria, 2011 Honorable Mention, DocsLisboa Film Festival, Portugal, 2011

Directed by: Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz
Year: 2011
Running Time: 84′