Abbas-street, Haifa
Filming Now
Abbas Street is located on the Carmel mountain, with the entire Haifa Bay spread out in front of it. The first houses of the street are located in the part close to the city centre. Those were built in the 30s of the 20th century as the home of the Arab intellectual elite. In the 1950s, with the massive immigration to Israel, the so-called "SHIKUNIM", those ugly housing projects, were built.
On the street lived in the 1960s and 1970s a mixed population of Arabs and Jews. Since the 1980s, most of the Jewish residents of the street have left.
Ruth Bachrach left the country at the age of 21, three weeks after completing her army service, and since then she has lived in the Netherlands.
In the last 17 years she has been living in an apartment in the centre of Amsterdam. A year ago she learned that the apartment she lived in and which she loved so much was "a Jewish home," meaning a house where Jews had lived before and during WW2, and were exterminated in the Holocaust. This is one of many "Jewish Homes" in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
Because of her mother's health, Bachrach returns to the house and the street where she was born, Abbas Street in Haifa.
There, through conversations with neighbours, friends and family, the history of the street, which was abandoned by its Arab residents in 1948, becomes clear. The delicate texture of the forced neighbours is revealed through the personal stories of the people, the buildings and the trees. Stories that unfold over a period from the Second Temple to the present day.
Abbas Blues is an autobiographical documentary film that tells the story of Abbas Street, which is a microcosm of the Israeli, Arab and Jewish existence.
Apparently Abbas street is Hot.
As it happened, upon returning to Abbas-street Haifa, I discovered that this street is quite famous.
Friends and family (Thank you Uncle Mark !) searched the internet for me and found two films and one play; the latest very recent, showed August 2018. The film made together with this film will come out over a month
I grew up in Abbas-street nr. 35. My mother still lives here.
Abbas-street is an extraordinary street.
Jews, Arabs (or is the politically correct term now is "Palestinians"),
Muslims, Catholics, Bahai. New immigrants, people who come from families who,
according to the family-stories, have lived in Israel ever since the Roman Empire and the Fall of the Second Temple.
On Fridays Um Culthum sang from all the open windows. The smells of cleaning and cooking filled the street. I joined the Blessing of the Sabbath in my friend's home.
For the last 5 years I have been talking about coming and filming this street.
Coming to Israel, friends and family have found out that one film was made in 1969 (2 years after the annexation of the West Bank).
The second was made in 1997 by Eithan Wezler.
Only when searching in English we found about the project of Nadal Rafa, a mono-drama about Abbas street nr. 36
https://www.facebook.com/abbasstreet.haifa.1
I wanted to make a film about the impossibility of living together, about conflict, about underlying hate and anger.
What I am finding is the story of Neighbors, where everybody is more concerned with garbage, street cats and parking, and avoids difficult subjects.
Except us, intellectuals and artists.
On the street lived in the 1960s and 1970s a mixed population of Arabs and Jews. Since the 1980s, most of the Jewish residents of the street have left.
Ruth Bachrach left the country at the age of 21, three weeks after completing her army service, and since then she has lived in the Netherlands.
In the last 17 years she has been living in an apartment in the centre of Amsterdam. A year ago she learned that the apartment she lived in and which she loved so much was "a Jewish home," meaning a house where Jews had lived before and during WW2, and were exterminated in the Holocaust. This is one of many "Jewish Homes" in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
Because of her mother's health, Bachrach returns to the house and the street where she was born, Abbas Street in Haifa.
There, through conversations with neighbours, friends and family, the history of the street, which was abandoned by its Arab residents in 1948, becomes clear. The delicate texture of the forced neighbours is revealed through the personal stories of the people, the buildings and the trees. Stories that unfold over a period from the Second Temple to the present day.
Abbas Blues is an autobiographical documentary film that tells the story of Abbas Street, which is a microcosm of the Israeli, Arab and Jewish existence.
Apparently Abbas street is Hot.
As it happened, upon returning to Abbas-street Haifa, I discovered that this street is quite famous.
Friends and family (Thank you Uncle Mark !) searched the internet for me and found two films and one play; the latest very recent, showed August 2018. The film made together with this film will come out over a month
I grew up in Abbas-street nr. 35. My mother still lives here.
Abbas-street is an extraordinary street.
Jews, Arabs (or is the politically correct term now is "Palestinians"),
Muslims, Catholics, Bahai. New immigrants, people who come from families who,
according to the family-stories, have lived in Israel ever since the Roman Empire and the Fall of the Second Temple.
On Fridays Um Culthum sang from all the open windows. The smells of cleaning and cooking filled the street. I joined the Blessing of the Sabbath in my friend's home.
For the last 5 years I have been talking about coming and filming this street.
Coming to Israel, friends and family have found out that one film was made in 1969 (2 years after the annexation of the West Bank).
The second was made in 1997 by Eithan Wezler.
Only when searching in English we found about the project of Nadal Rafa, a mono-drama about Abbas street nr. 36
https://www.facebook.com/abbasstreet.haifa.1
I wanted to make a film about the impossibility of living together, about conflict, about underlying hate and anger.
What I am finding is the story of Neighbors, where everybody is more concerned with garbage, street cats and parking, and avoids difficult subjects.
Except us, intellectuals and artists.
CROWD FUNDING
I am still looking for funds for filming and exhibiting this film.
Please contact me if you want to support
I am still looking for funds for filming and exhibiting this film.
Please contact me if you want to support