The Refusal Front
When peace proves impossible, all means are justified to defend a political cause.
From this situation emerges, on the border separating the Palestinian territories and the land they refuse to recognize as the State of Israel, a group of teenagers aged sixteen to twenty-two who train relentlessly in a secret underground base to become suicide commandos.
Documentary, 1975, color, France, 16 mm, 10 min.
Directed by: Jocelyne Saab – Journalist: Jocelyne Saab – Production: Jocelyne Saab – Copyright: Association Jocelyne Saab
“The Suicide Commandos was, at the time, considered a scoop. It is the first documentary that made me aware of the power of images and the meaning of their content, of the various readings that could be made of them, of the relationship to framing, etc. It was not about activism. One could defend a cause, but it was necessary to have an underlying understanding of the language of images and what it could generate… and to know how an image could be turned against you.”
Statements collected by Mathilde Rouxel in Beirut in 2013.
“One of my first films, five years ago, about Palestinian commandos, left a strong impression on me. It was a scoop, a great success for me, but a failure in terms of informing and raising public awareness. People are tired of violence. I showed violence, and this war is nothing but violence, but I refuse to show it at a surface level: you see it through a shattered image. I rejected sensationalist imagery. I chose the position of opposition.”
Statements collected by Maryse Léon and Magda Wassef in Paris in 1978.