Innocence

by Guy Davidi

Product Availability

Home-Use, Community Screenings, Theatrical, Festivals

About the Film

Award-winning and Oscar-nominated director Guy Davidi (5 BROKEN CAMERAS) focuses on his country’s military industrial-cultural complex to reveal a searing and devastating story of war, propaganda, and a society that normalizes the corruption of childhood in the service of state violence. While exposing the workings of Israel’s recruitment and training machine, Davidi deftly stitches the fragments of a militarized culture into a scathing exposition and inevitable call to action.

INNOCENCE’s disquieting tapestry of home videos, diaries, intimate letters and poetry, as well as clandestine insider footage, probes volatile and difficult spaces marked by the deformation of childhood, indoctrination and the consequential loss of young lives at their own hands. The reflections of young Israeli conscripts grappling with the physical, emotional and moral punishment of training for hate, war and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands are shared by way of indelible diary entries, footage from training camps and private moments at home with family and school friends. These are the fragments of short-lived lives, and in Davidi’s hypnotic, caring and cautionary film they compel us to know the trauma and confront the carnage of state violence – both internal and external.

2022 · 1h40m · Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Israel

English, Hebrew

English subs

Festivals and Awards

2024

Salt Spring Film Festival, Official Selection, BC premiere

2023

Lunenburg Doc Fest, Official Selection

2023

Festival de cinema ville de Quebec, Official Selection

2023

Atlantic International Film Festival, Official Selection

2023

Millenium Docs Against Gravity, Official Selection, Bydgoszcz ART.DOC Award

2023

Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, Official Selection

2023

Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Official Selection

2023

CPH:DOX, Official Selection

2022

IDFA, Official Selection

2022

Chicago International Film Festival, Official Selection

2022

Best Mediterranean Film, Young Artists in Venice Award

2022

Venice International Film Festival, Official Selection, Horizon Section

Screenings

March 3, 2024

Salt Spring Film Festival (Salt Spring Island, Canada)

December 6, 2023

Cinema Politica Fredericton (Fredericton, Canada)

September 26, 2023

Lunenburg Doc Fest (Lunenburg, Canada)

September 21, 2023

Atlantic International Film Festival (Atlantic Coast Premiere) (Halifax, Canada)

September 15, 2023

Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec (Quebec Premiere) (Quebec City, Canada)

May 12, 2023

Millenium Docs Against Gravity (Warsaw, Poland)

May 4, 2023

Hot Docs International Documentary Festival (Toronto, Canada)

April 30, 2023

Hot Docs International Documentary Festival (Canadian Premiere) (Toronto, Canada)

September 5, 2022

Venice International Film Festival (World Premiere) (Venice, Italy)

Credits

Director

Guy Davidi

Producers

Sigrid Dyekjær, Hilla Medalia

Production

Danish Documentary, Medalia Productions

Editor

Guy Davidi

Cinematography

Guy Davidi, Avner Shahaf

Composer

Snorri Hallgrímsson

Sound Design

Heikki Kossi M.P.S.E

"A thoughtful, wide-ranging focus results in an eye-opening documentary that grows into a moving lament for the dead."

“documentarian Guy Davidi’s Innocence only starts there, providing a harrowing multimedia case against his country’s conscription and the pressure squeezing the Israeli children staring down its barrel.”

“incredibly moving and tenderly assembled documentary…”

“a quietly powerful film with important questions that, one hopes, will contribute to a much-needed reevaluation of compulsory enrollment in the armed forces.”

“an impassioned, partisan film, Innocence […] serves as a yet another reminder that, at this point its history, the country faces greater threats from within than from outside its borders.”

About the Director

Guy Davidi

Born in Jaffa, acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi, has been making films since a young age. After evading the Israeli army Davidi started to make films focusing on highly charged political issues with a deeply emotional tone and an innovative approach. His most known film 5 Broken Cameras, co-directed with Palestinian Emad Burnat, was nominated to the Oscar in 2012 and won an Emmy for Best Documentary in 2013. The film has since been considered as an astounding achievement of the Palestinian-Israeli peace movement. His new film Innocence, based on 10 years of research, is an epic portrait of his own disturbed country.

Additional Material

Innocence

"A thoughtful, wide-ranging focus results in an eye-opening documentary that grows into a moving lament for the dead."

“documentarian Guy Davidi’s Innocence only starts there, providing a harrowing multimedia case against his country’s conscription and the pressure squeezing the Israeli children staring down its barrel.”

“incredibly moving and tenderly assembled documentary…”

“a quietly powerful film with important questions that, one hopes, will contribute to a much-needed reevaluation of compulsory enrollment in the armed forces.”

“an impassioned, partisan film, Innocence […] serves as a yet another reminder that, at this point its history, the country faces greater threats from within than from outside its borders.”

Guy Davidi

Guy Davidi - INNOCENCE - #VENEZIA79

BIFF2022 감독 인사말 | 이노센스 Innocence | 기 다비디 Guy DAVIDI

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