Eyal Sivan / Palestina, Germany, Belgium, France / 89’ / 2009

This political essay recounts the invention and visual history of the famous citrus fruit native to Palestine, known worldwide as “Jaffa oranges.” While the orange has become a symbol of the Zionist enterprise and the State of Israel, for Palestinians it symbolizes the loss of their homeland and its destruction. Through a careful reading of the visual representation of the brand, the film reflects on Western ghosts associated with the “East,” the “holy land,” and the State of Israel, and reveals the untold story of what was once a community symbol and a common industry for Arabs and Jews in Palestine.

Eyal Sivan
Eyal Sivan is a filmmaker, writer and theorist born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel, raised in Jerusalem and living in Europe since 1985.
After working as a professional commercial photographer in Tel Aviv, he left Israel in 1985 and settled in Paris. He currently divides his time between Europe and Israel. Known for his controversial films, Sivan has produced and directed more than a dozen political documentaries. Common State (2012), Jaffa (2009) and Route 181 (2003) were awarded at various festivals. Sivan’s films are regularly shown in art exhibitions such as Documenta, Manifesta and ICP New York. His work touches on themes such as the representation of political crime, the political use of memory, the ethics of documentary filmmaking and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He is founder and artistic director of the Paris-based documentary company Momento ! and the film distribution agency Scalpel. He created “South Cinema Notebooks,” a film criticism magazine published by Sapir Academic College in Ashkelon.