Innocence

According to director Guy Davidi, there is no place for childhood innocence in Israel. The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, reveals the tragic impact of Israeli militarism on the lives of local youth, trained from an early age to defend their homeland.

In Israel, military service is compulsory for all citizens over 18. Personal identity and values are disregarded. Indoctrination with militaristic ideology starts in kindergartens. As they grow older, their education for war ramps up, with combat training and shooting machine guns becoming a normal part of growing up. Based on authentic diary entries and home movies, the narrative reveals the inner struggles of young people who did not want to enlist but ended up losing their lives in the army. This chillingly poetic film is an indictment of the Israeli government, for whom dead children are not a failure of the system but simply bad PR.