206 minutes / Color/B&W
Swedish; English; Arabic; Hebrew / English subtitles
Release: 2025
Copyright: 2024
“We only get worse and kill them more and more. Then they do the same thing.” — an Israeli child, 1988
Television broadcasting debuted in Sweden in 1957. And Swedish public broadcaster SVT began covering Israel and Palestine almost from day one.
In ISRAEL PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989, filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson (The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975) masterfully weaves together some of this footage, telling the story of the rise of the Israeli state and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination — as seen by Swedish media.
For the first decade, SVT coverage is mostly positive. There is a sense of affinity for Israel’s collective efforts in agriculture, housing, medicine, and what is then openly called colonization. But over time the Palestinians move from the sidelines to center stage. There is hope, there is confusion, there is disillusionment and despair.
ISRAEL PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989 features interviews with key political and military figures, and highlights historic events like the Six Day War, the 1972 Munich Olympic attack, the first Intifada, and the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. But the film also shares more intimate, rarely seen stories. We meet Palestinian resistance fighters training in the desert, a Bedouin Israeli with torn allegiances, idealistic Swedish peacekeepers, and West Bank journalists trying to put out their paper under strict censorship.
Olsson draws on material from a variety of programs — interview shows, investigative reportage, news stories, magazine-style pieces and even children’s programming. The result is an illuminating look at a changing media landscape and the framing of one of the most significant and intractable conflicts of our times.
“CRITIC’S PICK! AN EXCELLENT DOCUMENTARY… This sprawling, continually engrossing assemblage from Göran Hugo Olsson (THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE) is built entirely from material shown on Swedish public television. Its subject is not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also how the news was mediated for Swedish viewers by a dominant broadcaster with a mandate for impartiality.” —Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times (United States)
“Deserves to be seen. It testifies to the importance of public broadcasting… Beyond hours and hours of fascinating footage—which could be cut any number of ways—this is the best thing Olsson’s film has going for it: it demonstrates that there’s no guarantee incontrovertible evidence can change anything on the ground for the people who need it to change.” —Steve Macfarlane, Screen Slate (United States)
“A mammoth work on war and the media.” —Il Manifesto (Italy)
“Invaluable. [An] illuminating, even-handed magnum opus…Exhaustive in its detail and balanced in its spread of voices.” —Wendy Ide, Screen Daily (England)
“An astonishing, invaluable document of the history of Israel and Palestine, and a fascinating insight into the complicated nature of journalism.” —The National (Abu Dhabi)
“This monumental documentary filters over 30 years of public service broadcasting archive, creating a portrait of how the Middle East conflict was reported in Sweden. Göran Hugo Olsson’s epic panorama of violence, disaster and political oration is woven together with reflective sequences that provide an evolving perspective that’s all too timely for the West today.” —BFI London Film Festival (England)
“A tool and a source to better understand this conflict. And consequently, to tell its story better.” —Framed Magazine (Italy)
“A huge, historical document.” —Micropsia Cine (Argentina)
“Challenges viewers to consider the contradictions… and doesn’t resort to oversimplification by providing solutions like most mainstream media.” —Overly Honest Reviews (United States)
“Unfolds in rhythm with the passage of time… Punctures all the simplistic arguments.” —Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden)
“Without these testimonies, we risk the war resembling mere theater.” —Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden)
“A study of a changing media landscape… and a critique of the historical ignorance of our time.” —Upsala Nya Tidning (Sweden)
Coming soon.
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Selected Accolades
The story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world – what it once was, what it is now, and what it could have become.
ICARUS | Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland | 79 minutes | Color | Arabic; Hebrew | English subtitles
