The tape-recorded words “erase it” take on new weight in the context of history and war.

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, war broke out and hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated in its aftermath. Israelis know this as the War of Independence. Palestinians call it “Al Nakba” (the Catastrophe). In the late 1990s, graduate student Teddy Katz conducted research into a large-scale massacre that had allegedly occurred in the village of Tantura in 1948.

His work later came under attack and his reputation was ruined, but 140 hours of audio testimonies remain.

Director Alon Schwarz revisits former Israeli soldiers of the Alexandroni Brigade as well as Palestinian residents in an effort to re-examine what happened in Tantura and explore why the Nakba is taboo in Israeli society.

The now elderly ex-soldiers recall unsettling acts of war while disquietly pausing at points they either don’t remember or won’t speak of. Audio from Katz’s 20-year-old interviews cuts through the silence of self-preservation and exposes the ways in which power, silencing, and protected narratives can sculpt history.

Director
Alon Schwarz

Producers
Shaul Schwarz
Alon Schwarz
Maiken Baird

Writers
Alon Schwarz
Shaul Schwarz
Halil Efrat

Editors
Halil Efrat
Amir Sevilla
Sagi Bornstein

Executive Producers
Ian Orefice
Mike Beck
Steve Cohen
Paula Froehle
Jamie Wolf
Nathalie Seaver
Barbara Dobkin
Eric Dobkin
Line Producer
Marc Zahakos

Associate Producers
Christina Clusiau
Ronnie Merdinger

Cinematographers
Or Azulay
Avner Shahaf
Yonatan Weitzman
Ilya Magnes

Original Music Composer
Ophir Leibovitch

©Reel Peak Films