Yulie Cohen Gerstel

My Terrorist

Director	Yulie Cohen Gerstel
Country of production:	Israel
Year of production:	2002
Duration:	58 min
Camera:	Oded Kirma
Editing:	Boaz Lion
Music:	Tal Segev
Production:	Cohen Gerstel Productions
Distribution:	First Hand Films

Film plot

London, August 1978: a bus with crewmembers of the Israeli airline company El Al is attacked by Palestinian terrorists. Fahad Mihyi is arrested and convicted following the deadly assault, Yulie Cohen Gerstel survives the raid. The fragment that landed in her arm is used as evidence during the trial. Now, twenty-three years later, Gerstel has decided to help release Mihyi, who is still in jail; even if she still takes tranquilizers every day and hesitates to let her children go out on the street alone. Other Israelis blame her for supporting terrorism, but she feels that the circle of violence has to be broken. Cohen Gerstel used to be an officer in the Israeli army, but she quit, when under the Israeli occupation in 1982, Moslems were killed in Lebanon. Now, she and a group of photographers visit the Palestinian territories - the photos are shown in the documentary. Illustrated by phone conversations, letters and conversations with advocates and opponents, Gerstel’s motivations become clear. She quotes from the autobiography of her great-grandfather, who already denounced the Zionist attitude towards the Palestinians. Nevertheless, Cohen Gerstel still doubts whether she should help a former terrorist, especially when she watches TV and sees the World Trade Center in New York collapse.

The documentary offers a crash course in the violence-ridden history of Israel, from the Six-Day War to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, at the same time demonstrating how drastic a terrorist attack, committed on political grounds, is for those involved.

 

Born in Israel, Yulie Cohen Gerstel graduated Tel Aviv University in Sociology & Anthropology. After completing her MA with distinction in communication Arts at NYIT in 1984, she started working on films in NYC and LA. Starting as production assistant, through assistant camera to script supervisor and line producer, she became a producer and later a director.  Since 1996, Yulie has produced and directed fifteen documentaries. My Terrorist won the special jury prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival and was nominated for the Silver Wolf at IDFA.  Since then, My Terrorist has been translated into 16 different languages, broadcasted in over 20 different countries and has been screened at over 100 film festival around the world.

After completing My Terrorist in 2002, Yulie directed two further documentaries being supported by The Danish Film Institute, the BBC and TV2 Denmark in the trilogy: My Land Zion (2004) and now - My Brother (2007).  My Land Zion was screened at many film festivals in Israel, Canada, France, Australia, USA, Italy, Argentina, Germany, Denmark, Ecuador and more.

On 2005 Cohen Gerstel received the Art of Film Prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival.