The Law In These Parts: Summary

The Law In These Parts (Alexandrowicz, 2012) is a documentary film focusing on the legal system used to sustain the Isreali occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The film deals specifically with the legal system and its role in legitimizing the occupation for the last 45 years. As the filmmakers themselves see their project it seeks to ask, "can a modern democracy impose a prolonged military occupation on another people while retaining its core democratic values?" (thelawfilm.com). Through a series of interviews with retired high ranking Israeli officials and voice over archive footage the documentary seeks to unravel that question. Ra'anan Alexandrowicz- the director- does the voice over narration though we never see the director for certain in the film (Press nybooks.com). 

The film begins with the construction of the set: a chair and pulpit like desk set against a green screen. As critic Robert Koeheler remarks, "[t]he judges and attorneys often turn to watch the footage being simultaneously seen by the doc[umentaries]s aud[ience], resulting in a postmodern approach that invites the viewer into the director's inquiry" (Koehler, Variety). The film continually draws into question the conventions of filmmaking and the violence of interviews resulting in a fascinating participatory-reflexive mode. At the end of the film Alexandrowicz even calls into question his own participation as a filmmaker and draws attention to the fact that when his camera shuts off, the problem will persist.

The film also adopts what film scholar Bill Nichols categorizes as a "historical non-fiction model" (Nichols 150). The Law In These Parts begins the historical narrative in 1947 with the Israeli state- though no state of Israel yet existed- sponsored "cultural tours" of the West Bank and Gaza region. These cultural tours included semi-automatic weapons and armed escorts. The film is austerely divided into five parts that seemingly mirror the historical acquisition of land by Israel. From the cultural tours the films traverses the historical landscape through the initial occupation to the Six-Years-War in 1967, up until today. The whole time subjecting the interviewees to questions about the development of the law that coincided with the historical conjunctures. 

In a dramatic sequence of final thoughts from the interviewees the filmmakers demonstrate the influential power of evidentiary editing. The crucial questions of the violence done to Palestinian detainees and the legitimacy of the "privisonal" legislation are edited together in a whirlwind of self condemnation on the part of the judges, lawyers and legal advisors. In effect the subjects of the film pass the final verdict on their actions. However, the film ends, as noted above, not with a plan of action and a number to text to change the world, but with a closing voice over from Alexandrowicz. He references the documentary mode, challenging the conventions of pre scripted solutions by his failure to offer even an optimistic diagnosis of the problems. The audience is left with the final verdict of the Palestinian-Isreali conflict in their newly informed (and probably overwhelmed) hands. 

The Law In These Parts Official website: www.thelawfilm.com/eng

Press, Eyal. How The Occupation Became Legal. The New York Review of Books. Jan. 25, 2012.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jan/25/how-occupation-became-legal/

Koehler, Robert. The Law In These Parts. Variety Reviews. Jan,.29, 2012.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946961/

Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary 2nd Ed. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2010.

Alexandrowicz, Ra'anan. The Justice Of Occupation. New York Times Op-Docs. Jan. 24, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/opinion/the-justice-of-occupation.html?_r=1

Goldberg, Matt. Sundance 2012: The Law In These Parts review. collider.com. Jan. 24, 2012.
http://collider.com/sundance-2012-the-law-in-these-parts-review/140253/#more-140253