Experiencing Interruptions?

It Is What It Is

A few years before my grandmother Keti passed away, I discovered her secret: she wasn’t always Jewish. She and my grandfather were one of 3,000 “mixed” couples who immigrated to Israel from Communist Poland in the 1950s, stirring tension in Israeli society. Like her, I’m also in a “mixed” relationship with a non-Jew, a Palestinian-Israeli. Intertwining the love stories of the grandmother and the granddaughter, “IT IS WHAT IT IS” explores the profound cost of crossing the love lines in the 'Jewish state.'

  • Gal Rosenbluth
    Director
  • Michal Weitz
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 10 minutes
  • Country of Origin:
    Israel
  • Country of Filming:
    Israel, Poland
  • Language:
    Arabic, Hebrew, Polish
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Gal Rosenbluth

Gal is an Israeli filmmaker. Studied at the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem and graduated with honors. Among her projects in progress is "NON-ISSUE", 8 ep dramedy, winner of the PARAMOUNT+ award at MIA Roma Film Market. The project also participated in the Sam Spiegel Series Lab supported by Netflix. And "IT IS WHAT IT IS", a full-length documentary developed in the NFCT doc lab, winner of the development grant after pitching in Docaviv Film Festival.
Wrote and directed three award-winning short films – SHMITA (2016), VIVID RUTHIE (2017), ARABIC FRIDAY (2019) last two also screened commercially. Nowadays editing her new short - WHY AREN'T YOU CRYING.

Her next short - CARMI IS OPTIMISTIC - won the JWFF pitch and participated the shorts lab of NFCT and Tel-Aviv International FF.

Winner of BEST RESEARCH FOR FILM award for "1948- Remember, Remember not" at DocAviv FF and Israeli Documentary awards.

Gal is working as an editor: "The Dreamers" (Sundance TV), "Ambulance" (by creators of Lenox Hill), "Tiberias" (Winner of BEST SERIES Israeli documentary awards, nominated BEST EDITOR Israeli TV awards), "BAHASTORE" (post-production), "AMAL" (post-production, rough-cut lab Haifa FF) and more.

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Director Statement

I knew very little about my grandmother, Keti, but there was a deep connection between us that didn't require words. And I knew there was a secret.

A few years before she passed away, she told me she wasn't always Jewish. At the time, I brushed it off. But when I discovered the phenomenon of Polish-Jewish mixed couples, it hit me. My grandmother faced hostility because she wasn’t Jewish, and my father carried shame and anger for being different.

I know firsthand the challenges of being a mixed couple in the 'Jewish state' and the painful baggage that comes with it. Feelings of alienation, loneliness, and being an outsider are things I sensed and wondered about growing up in relation to my grandmother. These are the things I now understand in my own life and nature of relationship with Nayef. Discovering my grandmother's story brought comfort, that quickly became anger. The reality we are required to live in—hiding, concealing, being in conflict because the nature of our relationships—worsens. The politics of identity in this love story grow more complex over the years. If a love like ours is perceived as a threat by mainstream society here, it is, for me, the only hope.

The film will explore the cost of “mixed” love in the “Jewish state” and how the inherent racism of this definition seeps into these relationships. What makes this love possible? What sacrifices are made? And how does it resonate with future generations of those families? If I could ask my late grandmother all these questions, her answer would probably be, "IT IS WHAT IT IS."