Shadya interview page 2 (cont.)
UK: On the other hand, many of the Israeli-Arabs are good citizens and know how to avoid conflicts of this kind. They really want to live a peaceful life and even admit they would prefer living in the Israeli democracy than in any other Arab state.
Formally there is equality and the Arabs deserve the same rights as the Jews. But in some cases the Arabs suffer from deprivation. This is much enhanced by the very developed sense of self-criticism of the Israeli democracy. One can read, hear and watch claims of deprivation on a daily basis. No doubt Israel’s free, open democratic spirit exposes this very often and gives other mechanisms of justice in the state-- the court, the kneset (parliament) and others-- the opportunity to deal with these problems.
We had to take all this into consideration while working with this Arab family during the two years. We had to be very sensitive to their fears, hesitations, confusions etc. We had to make the differentiations between the careful talking of the adults to the more open, less-afraid talking of the young daughters. We had to move carefully with our need to expose the reality, to show real life as they are behind the curtains, the strict tradition of the Arabs that deals a lot with respect and keeping the women “well secured behind the curtain.” No doubt without the braveness of Shadya and her father--both very outstanding persons-- to allow us to enter their world, this film would not be possible.
One of the most suspenseful moments in the film is when the Israeli karate team meets the Palestinian karate team in South Africa. Competitive sports can’t avoid politics or can they transcend? What was happening as you were filming that moment? What happened that we didn’t see?
DH: Competitive sports can transcend politics if you have the basis and will to respect the other person. The original script of the film was to film Israeli and Palestinian children doing karate together using the virtues of Karate-do i.e. respect, self-control and harmony. This was actually agreed upon by myself (the Israeli coach) and Khalil (the Palestinian coach). However the Palestinian coach changed his mind, and when Shadya was upset by the way the Palestinians did not want to accept her, the direction of the film changed to documenting Shadya.
There was one incident where Shadya had such an identity crisis (re: being Israeli and Palestinian) that she sat with the Japanese team.
