500 dunam on the moon
a film by rachel leah jones
500 DUNAM ON THE M00N is a documentary about the Palestinian village of Ayn Hawd, which was captured and depopulated by Israeli forces in the 1958 war and subsequently transformed into a Jewish artist’s colony and renamed Ein Hod. It tells the story of the village’s original inhabitants who, after expulsion, settled only 1.5 kilometers away in the outlying hills. Since Israeli law prevents Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes, the refugees of Ayn Hawd established a new village: “Ayn Hawd Al-Jadida” (The New Ayn Hawd). Ayn Hawd Al-Jadida was, until recently, an unrecognized village– meaning that it received no electricity, water, or an access road.
Addressing the universal issues of colonization, landlessness, gentrification, and cultural appropriation in the specific context of Israel/Palestine, 500 Dunam on the Moon documents the art of dispossession and the creativity of the dispossessed.
reviews
“Rachel Leah Jones’s dispassionate tour of the village Ein Hod, née Ayn Hawd, encapsulates the most bitter of Israel’s ironies: how a place of refuge created its own refugees.”
“With a refreshing attention to the politics of aesthetics, Rachel Leah Jones’ directorial debut, discloses a different sort of violence that marks the histories and daily lives of Palestinian people.”
“Rachel Leah Jones’ documentary unsettles the dominant Israeli narrative about the artists’ colony Ein Hod, founded in the wake of the dispossession of the Palestinian village Ayn Hawd, while giving the term ‘artists’ colony’ an ironic twist. The film highlights a multi-layered history of silence wherein a hybrid architectural style that combines ‘East’ and ‘West’ has been literally built upon the ruins of Palestinian houses. Capturing this process from the perspective of the original villagers, living on the outskirts of their old home, Jones’ film courageously puts the ‘present absentees’ back, as it were, on the map.”