Our Natural Right
Over seven decades ago, the members of the People's Council sat down to draft the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. Every word and comma led to hours of debate. The declaration was signed, the State established, but the debate still rages. The grandchildren of the signers of the Declaration of Independence return to the hall in Tel Aviv where the document was signed. Who are the descendants of the people who established the state? What do they think of it today? Can they agree on one correct path for Israel? Natural Right raises once again the issues upon which the State of Israel has yet to decide, over seventy years after first attempting to do so.
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Yulie CohenDirectorMy Terrorist, My Land Zion, My Brother
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Sagi BornsteinProducerGolda, #uploading_holocaust
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Udi NirProducerGolda, #uploading_holocaust
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Project Type:Documentary
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Genres:History
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Runtime:47 minutes
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Completion Date:December 20, 2020
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Production Budget:125,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Israel
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Country of Filming:Israel
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Language:Hebrew
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Shooting Format:HD
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Solidarity Film FestivalTel Aviv
Israel
December 20, 2020
World Premier
Official Selection
Yulie Cohen | Director
Earned a degree in Sociology & Anthropology from Tel Aviv University (1981), and an MA with distinction in Communication Arts from the New York Institute of Technology (1984).
Worked in films in New York and Los Angeles, returning to Israel in 1988 for the birth of the first of two daughters.
Since 1996, Yulie has directed and/or produced many documentaries such as: Ramle (2000) with director Michal Aviad.
My Terrorist (2002) was financed by ZDF/ARTE, The Danish Film Institute, the BBC, YLE Finland, and TV2 Denmark received a special jury prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival, was Silver Wolf nominee at IDFA, was awarded the Provincia di Cuneo Prize (2003) and the European Prize Ilaria Alpi Journalistic Television.(2004) My Terrorist was translated into 20 languages, broadcasted in 21 countries and screened at more than 100 film festivals around the world.
My Land Zion (2004) was financed by ZDF/ARTE, The Danish Film Institute, the BBC, VRT Belgium, YLE Finland, and TV2 Denmark was broadcasted in more than ten countries, and screened at tens film festivals.
The Art of Film Prize was given to Yulie by the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2005.
My Brother (2007) premiered at Haifa International film festival and was transmitted outside Israel and by Channel 2 Israel with high rating.
My Israel (2008), a compilation of the above mentioned trilogy produced and directed by Cohen, was commissioned by Nick Fraser for BBC4, Storyville, and was transmitted on Israel sixty's anniversary on May 2008. It was supported by Israel Gesher fund and transmitted at DRtv, DK and Israel's documentary channel- YesDocu. The four films have been shown in Israel and abroad followed by discussions.
A Minor Shrine For Our Love ('30, 2014) a documentary for Dani Karavan's exhibition 50 years of the Negev Monument / 50 Years to Dani Karavn's Public Art 30 Oct. 2014 – 31 January 2015 in The Negev Museum of Art.
Since 2008, she is teaching at Bezalel Academy of the Arts and in Ma'ale Film School, both in Jerusalem.
Currently working on Who Killed Jessica? An animated documentary supported by NFCT, Channel 8 Israel and co produces with France, Belgium and Germany.
I "carry on my back" the history of my family – Three generations of the Shlush Family, who were one of the few founding families of the first Hebrew city - Tel Aviv. I am the daughter of two "Sabras" who volunteered to leave high-school in 1948 to fight in the front lines of the Israeli independence war. To this day, my parents are deeply moved when they hear a recording of David Ben Gurion reading out the Israeli declaration of independence. For them, the war in 1948 was for life or death. And so, in my house, where I raised my daughters, a picture of this declaration was framed on the wall as a reminder.
Although the declaration is the constituent text of the state of Israel, and it seems there is a consensus around it, it is also very prone to interpretation. Members of parliament and government ministers from across the political spectrum often quote from it in their speeches, often with opposite interpretations to the same single sentence.
On the first day of shooting "Natural Right", it was already clear that the polemics over the declaration and its interpolation still resonates today with the grandchildren of the men and women who wrote it 70 year ago, just as it still resonates between different groups and sects within the Jewish Israeli society. This polemics itself is what the film asks to bring to the front – for 70 year we have been acting out of habit or necessity, without taking a moment to answer the most fundamental questions about our existence in this land: Is a Jewish and democratic state a feasible concept? Is it possible to find a consensus within the Jewish society in Israel? And what about the non-Jewish citizens of Israel?
The grandchildren of the people who signed the Israeli declaration of independence do not hold public office like their grandparents. They are private individuals who are committed to their own values and principals, not to these of a political party. That said, their kinship to the people who drafted the constituent text of the state summons intriguing insights about who were the people who founded the state of Israel, what motivated them, what frightened them, and what they hoped would happen in the future. Because of this kinship, the grandchildren have a sort of "natural right" to voice their opinion. Whether they say "there is no Palestinian people", or "I would like to see an Arab prime minister of Israel" – their voices resonate, especially when expressed in the very same hall in which their grandparents declared the state.