Review of Route 181 (2003)

Route 181, recorded in 2002 in Palestine, is an important documentary for anyone who wishes to understand the psychology of the perpetrators and victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Filmed by Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan, the premise of the documentary is to travel along the borders outlined in UN Resolution 181, attempting to locate the destroyed Arab villages marked on the map upon which the resolution was drawn. The documentary itself is structured as a series of interviews, interspersed with some scenes recorded on camcorder provided with no commentary. The documentary utilizes no archival footage and provides no narrative, allowing the watcher to simply perceive the scenes and dialogue for themselves, placing the emphasis on the lives of the people in the present and their memories of the past. In this, the film allows the perpetrators of these crimes to indict themselves in their own words.