The Australian Premiere of Comrade Dov @ JIFF - New Israel Fund Australia

The Australian Premiere of Comrade Dov @ JIFF

Tue 2 Mar 2021 at 6:40pm - 8:15pm

Classic Cinemas, Elsternwick and Ritz Cinema, Randwick

Contact Sharon Berger ( 0438262120) for more information.

Goddamned communist. Internal enemy. Privileged Tel Aviv Ashkenazi. It seems Dov Khenin has been called almost everything during his 13-year tenure as Member of Knesset for Jewish-Arab party Hadash.

For years, director Barak Heymann has been following this leading legislator, creating a film that examines the open wounds of contemporary Israeli society: from the forced removal of the residents of Givat Amal to turbulent meetings of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, and down to the violent events at Umm al-Hiran.

Comrade Dov is a surprising, thought provoking portrait of a unique politician, who refuses to give up even as reality deals him one cruel blow after another.

Comrade Dov won the best documentary award at the 2020 Warsaw Jewish Film Festival.

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Join director Barak Heymann and the documentary's protagonist former Knesset member Dov Khenin in conversation with NIF Australia board member Kate Rosenberg. This recording is from the recent screening and Australian Premiere of the Comrade Dov documentary at the Jewish International Film Festival in Sydney and Melbourne.

 

Dov Khenin is a celebrated Israeli lawyer, political scientist, and former member of Knesset for Hadash and the Joint List. The three major tenets of Dov’s political philosophy and activism include the quest for Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace and a dramatic eco-socialist sea-change in inequitable social and economic systems.

During his tenure in the Knesset, Dov has initiated and was successful in passing dozens of bills related to human, womens, workers’, LGBTQ, animal protection and environmental rights.

He also published a number of articles and books on social, environmental, economic, and political issues in Israel and around the world.  In 2019, along with various social and political activists and academics, Dov established “Place for Change”, a hub for strategising and enacting transformative progressive change in Israel.

Barak Heymann has been directing and producing documentaries for TV and cinema for the past 15 years. Barak and his brother Tomer established an independent film company, Heymann Brothers Films, which has produced over 25 documentaries. Their films have premiered in numerous festivals worldwide, such as Berlinale, IDFA and Hotdocs, where they have won prestigious awards. Barak teaches in several film schools in Israel and is currently engaged in a number of ongoing projects.