AUDIO

It's Better To Jump

color. 73+ min. In English & Arabic w/English subtitles. & others, Patrick A. Stewart Prods., dist. by Cinema Libre Studio, www.cinemalibrestudio.com. 2014. DVD UPC 881394118720. $19.95. INT AFFAIRS
COPY ISBN
For centuries, the City of Akka in northern Israel has withstood outside invaders thanks to its fortified 40-foot-high seawall, which shelters this culturally and religiously diverse community of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, many of them Palestinian by birth. Now, however, marauders of a different sort are threatening to erode Akka from within, systematically displacing its long-tenured residents with outsiders seeking to transform the city into a gentrified tourist attraction. Locals describe through interviews the slow but profound change unfolding before them, while footage is intercut of Akka's youth jumping from the seawall as part of a longstanding rite of passage, a symbolic leap of faith emblematic of Palestinians' plight to maintain their identity in the face of ever-oppressive odds.
VERDICT A beautifully filmed take on a complex subject for which there are no easy answers but for which there is always hope.
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