Docaviv 2019, this year’s installment of the annual Tel Aviv Documentary Film festival will open tonight, May 23. This year 15 feature titles will participate in the festival’s competition, 12 of them are being screened for the first time anywhere.
Among the featured files is the world premiere of Barak Heymann’s Comrade Dov, which follows Communist Party of Israel leading activist and former MK Dov Khenin as he deals with the class struggle in Israel, environmental issues and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
In the narration of the film, Heymann says: “Goddamned communist, internal enemy, best friend of the Arabs. It seems Dov Khenin has been called almost everything during his 13-year tenure as Member of Knesset Hadash.” For years, director Heymann has been following this leading legislator, creating a film that examines the open wounds of contemporary Israeli society: from the forced eviction of the residents of Givat Amal in Tel Aviv to turbulent meetings of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, and down to the violent events in the Arab-Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev. “Comrade Dov is a surprising, thought-provoking portrait of a unique politician, who refuses to give up even as reality deals him one cruel blow after another,” said Heymann.
More on Comrade Dov (Israel 2019, 75 min, Hebrew and Arabic, Hebrew & English subtitles):
