What People Are Saying

"It is fair and even-handed in its telling of a wrenching, difficult history that features the perspectives of Israelis who saw the 1948 war as their War of Independence, and Palestinians who experienced it as their Nakba, or catastrophe."
-Sandy Tolan (Author, The Lemon Tree), Truthdig

“1948 makes the Nakba uncannily real for the doubting spectator.” 
Terri Ginsberg (University of Cairo), Arab Studies Quarterly

Reviews from the iTunes Store

• "This documentary is a must see."
• "I'm a university teacher and this documentary has been consistently part of my teaching materials."
• "The first in its class"
• "There are many good films about the Israel/Palestine situation, but 1948 is the best for fully understanding the context for what has been happening"
• "This movie was a transformative one for my understanding of what exactly happened in 1948"

The Story

Through riveting and moving personal recollections of both Palestinians and Israelis, 1948: Creation & Catastrophe reveals the shocking events of the most pivotal year in the most controversial conflict in the world.  It tells the story of the establishment of Israel as seen through the eyes of the people who lived it. It is simply not possible to make sense of what is happening in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today without an understanding of 1948.  This documentary was the last chance for many of its Israeli and Palestinian characters to narrate their first-hand accounts of the creation of a state and the expulsion of a nation.  

The documentary includes interviews with veterans, refugees, survivors and historians of the war collected in Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.  Those who lived through the war are the centerpiece of the story, but respected historians, including Charles D. Smith, Avi Shlaim, Nur Masalha, Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, Rashid Khalidi and Sharif Kanaaneh provide context for the events.

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