Origin: France | Fiction | Director: Groupe Cinéma Vincennes | 83 minutes

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The Olive Tree (l'Olivier; The olive farmer)

Groupe Cinéma Vincennes 1976 fiction 83 min.

The Groupe Cinéma Vincennes was a Parisian Maoist collective formed after
1968 and comprised of Ali Akika, Guy Chapoullie, Serge Le Péron, Jean
Narboni, Dominique Villain, and Danièle Dubroux. Their L'Olivier, emerged
in response to a feeling French public support for the Palestinian struggle
was diminishing following the 1972 Munich atrocity. As a form of "activist"
cinema, the 16mm doc they went on to make is a quite peerless work. Cannily
structured to convey the Palestinian story and to highlight the (then)
present state of the struggle, the film is at the same time a rousing call
for global revolutionary solidarities and, particularly, for European
political engagements. Revisited today, L'Olivier is striking for the
formal cinematic qualities it fuses with its political messaging. It is
also notable for the many grim continuities it reveals between 1975 and
today: home demolitions, imprisonment without trial, settlement
construction, resource theft, and diplomatic acquiescence... L'Olivier was
recently "rediscovered" by Subversive Film, a research and production body
specialising in militant cinemas from the 1960s to the 1980s. The first UK
presentation, at the 2012 London Palestine Film Festival involves newly
prepared English subtitles being displayed below the existing French.

Watch full movie: https://vimeo.com/432062498

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View trailer