126. The Tinderbox; movie review

 

THE TINDERBOX

Cert 12A

91 mins

BBFC advice: Contains  images of real dead bodies and violence, racism, infrequent strong language

In the early 2000s I visited Israel on a press trip and was stunned by the cheek-by-jowl nature of Jerusalem.

Its holiest sites are so close to each other that I would doubt I would tot up 10,000 steps walking between them.

Thus, as Jewish people prayed at the Wailing Wall, Muslims filed into the mosques on Temple Mount, literally above them.

A short wander away is the Church of The Holy Sepulchre which marks the spot that Jesus was crucified.

However, as Gillian Mosely's film evidences, despite the potential of religious flashpoints, people in this revered city mixed relatively happily for hundreds of years.

She traces back the current conflict just over a century - and, no surprise, the British played a dark hand in its beginnings.

Mosely, who is Jewish, was brought up in a family with a black and white view of the troubles in Israel, putting the blame on Palestinians and suggesting conflict only began in 1948 after Jews returned to their homeland following the Holocaust.

However, her head was turned when she became close friends with a young man on the opposite side of the argument.

This inspired her to dig deeper in pursuit of the root causes and attempt to use them to seek solutions.

Thus, she researches history and goes to Israel, talking to those on all sides of the disputes which have resulted in thousands of deaths and the erection of walls of which only Donald Trump would be proud.

Mosely is forensic in her approach to The Tinderbox and some of the interviews are revelatory.

However, she uses the type of language which appears to be aimed at university graduates or their equivalents rather than making the film easily accessible to all.

That is a pity because she has done a really good job of unravelling very complex issues.

Reasons to watch: Deep dive into the causes for conflict in Israel and Palestine

Reasons to avoid: Quite high brow

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? During the Ottoman period, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived, for the most part, harmoniously together. Contemporary accounts tell of Muslims reciting prayers with their Jewish neighbours, allowing them to collect water before the Sabbath, and even sending their children to Jewish schools so that they might learn to behave properly. Marriages and relations between Jews and Arabs were also not unheard of.

The final word. Gillian Mosely: "I soon realised there were a huge number of myths circulating, widely presented as fact, and wondered how any kind of effective peace can ever be brokered if so many falsehoods dominate the conversation. It was this situation that I sought to address with this film." Perspective

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