This documentary highlights trauma, healing, and resilience through the voices of inspiring individuals resisting Israeli oppression and fighting for a liberated Palestine
2024 · 1h43m · United States
Arabic, English
English subs
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About the Film
Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice.
We follow, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. We also witness Dr. Gabor Maté offer trauma-healing work to a group of women who were tortured in Israeli prisons.
Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives.
This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?
Upcoming Screenings
About the Director
Maurizio Benazzo
Maurizio Benazzo grew up in Italy, and in 1984 came to the United States on a ninety-eight-year-old sailing boat. He started working as an actor, model, and filmmaker, but his thirst for knowledge was only satisfied in 2001 upon encountering I Am That, the seminal work by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, while he was in India shooting the award-winning documentary Short Cut to Nirvana.
Maurizio and Zaya merged their lifelong passions for science and mysticism when they met in 2007, and their first project together was filming the documentary Rays of the Absolute on the life and teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. This project sparked their next level of creation and collaboration: SAND, a global community inspired by the timeless wisdom traditions, informed by modern science, and grounded in direct experience.
Together they have produced and directed several award-winning documentaries including The Wisdom of Trauma, The Art of Life, Rays of the Absolute, Where Olive Trees Weep, Mauri, If an Owl Calls Your Name.
Zaya Ralitza Benazzo
Zaya Ralitza Benazzowas born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. For as long as she can remember, she has been fascinated with exploring life’s big questions. She feels most at home in nature and, increasingly, within herself. Zaya is a producer and film director with engineering, environmental science, and film degrees. For many years, she worked as an environmental activist in Europe. Her deepest passion is bringing together wisdom from spiritual traditions in service of all life. Zaya believes that individual and collective liberation are inextricably interwoven.
