Arna's Children

Arna Mer came from a Zionist family and in the 1950s she married a Palestinian Arab.On the West Bank she opened a theatre centre for children from Jenin to help them to express their frustrations, anger and fear. Arna’s son, Juliano, worked with his mother and filmed her passionate commitment to the children and the project over seven years up to her death in 1996. Five years later, he returned to see what had happened to these children. Juliano looks back at Jenin, trying to understand the choices made by the children he loved and worked with. Shifting back and forth in time, the film reveals the tragedy and horror of lives trapped in the politics of war. (Independent Cinema Office)