Israeli director Avi Mograbi is mostly known for his scathing critique of the Israeli state and his view of the growing violence of Israeli society. In his latest film, Mograbi probes the continuous religious and secular cult of Samson and Massada in Israeli society, venerating death over domination. Yet, as the second Intifada is raging, the Palestinians are constantly humiliated by the Israeli army – peasants are kept from plowing their fields, children on their way back from school are stranded at checkpoints for hours, an old woman can't even go back home – these people voice their anger and despair, just as the Hebrews did with the Romans or Samson with the Philistines. In Hebrew and Arabic and English w/English subtitles.

Followed by a conversation between director Avi Mograbi and Bashir Abu-Manneh (Barnard College)

Born in 1956, Avi Mograbi studied Art at Ramat Hasharon Art School and Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. He has worked with local and international directors among them: Claude Lelouche, Moshe Mizrahi, Eitan Green, Daniel Vaxman, Renen Shor, and Shahar Segal. Avi worked as First Assistant Director in local and foreign feature films and commercials before directing How I Learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Arik Sharon, (1997). Since then he has received accolades all over the world for his fierce, witty take on Israel/Palestine relations.