NEW YORK, May 3, 2004 -- After the 1967 Six Day War, when filmmaker Danae Elon was just a year old, her parents rented an apartment in East Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, a Palestinian man from a nearby village came looking for work. Although it sounds unimaginable today, Mahmoud 'Musa' Obeidallah was hired on the spot to help care for the infant, the only child of the noted Israeli author Amos Elon and his wife, Beth.

"I grew up with Musa," says Danae. "He was always there, for 20 years, every morning when I woke up." Her childhood memories are confirmed by her mother, who tells her, "He took care of you enormously. He loved you. He spent more time with you than with his own children."

After growing up, Danae lost touch with Musa. She last saw him in 1991, in front of his home. "You are my favorite friend," he told Danae, handing her a ripe melon from a tree next to the house.

Following the terrible events of 9/11, "There was a lot of press coverage of the fact that the terrorist Mohammed Atta had spent time in Paterson, New Jersey," Danae says. "I remembered that Musa had sent his sons there to attend university and be safe from the hostilities at home." Suddenly haunted by a longing to reconnect, she resolved to pay them a visit, and brought her camera. "It was only once I started filming that I realized the strong emotional drive that led me there," she recalls.

The resultant documentary, "Another Road Home," brilliantly explores relations among and between the Elon and Obeidallah families, and through them takes on the tangle of Palestinian-Israeli relations. Along the way it inevitably bangs up against complex issues of power, politics, class and gender, while also examining the nature and effects of subjugation, occupation, oppression and resistance on members of both families. Against the backdrop of the seemingly distant but all-too-present conflict, the film tells a brutally honest, often painful, but always compelling love story.

Certain scenes and moments will linger in your mind's eye long after the lights come up. In one, Danae tells Musa of her startling memory of how he used to iron her Israeli Army uniform, to which he responds, "But I didn't do that for the Army. I did that for you!"

In another, her father -- an outspoken critic of Israeli policies toward Palestinians -- laments that it is no longer possible to have "normal social relations" with Palestinians. "I always feel in pain when I am with them," he explains. "Because I know they are right." "You feel that pain as something dividing you," she replies. "But it also unites you."

Ultimately, this extraordinary film centers on home and homeland. Strip away all the rhetoric and religion, the posturing and politics, the controversy and conflict, and those twinned concepts are at the essential, emotional heart of Palestinian -Israeli relations. In taking the risk of making it in such a personal and unflinching manner, Danae Elon suggests more about the path to peace in the Middle East than anything I've seen or heard before. "Another Road Home" is showing this week at the Tribeca Film Festival. Go see it -- home is where the heart is.

-- Rory O'Connor of MediaChannel.org writes a weekly column on the media for AM New York. Read other columns by O'Connor.

© MediaChannel.org, 2004. All rights reserved.

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