Should you watch Five Broken Cameras?
Who it’s good for, who it isn’t, and what’s in it. No ratings, no scores.

Five Broken Cameras
Documentary · 2011
Five broken cameras – and each one has a powerful tale to tell. Embedded in the bullet-ridden remains of digital technology is the story of Emad Burnat, a farmer from the Palestinian village of Bil’in, which famously chose nonviolent resistance when the Israeli army encroached upon its land to make room for Jewish colonists. Emad buys his first camera in 2005 to document the birth of his fourth son, Gibreel. Over the course of the film, he becomes the peaceful archivist of an escalating struggle as olive trees are bulldozed, lives are lost, and a wall is built to segregate burgeoning Israeli settlements.
The sides of Five Broken Cameras
- A Palestinian farmer filming his village
- Weekly protests against a separation wall
- A son growing up in front of the camera
Five Broken Cameras is good for you if…
- you want to see Bil'in through the eyes of a man who lives there.
- you like a father filming his youngest son as he grows up.
- you like a story told by one man and his cameras, year after year.
Five Broken Cameras is bad for you if…
- you can't watch real people being hurt and killed on camera.
- you need some hope by the end of a film.
About: resistance · land · fatherhood · loss
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