The Grand Illusion

Free screening with a $5-or-more suggested donation at the door. All proceeds will go to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), the primary aid org in Gaza, providing medical and humanitarian relief to children and families there. Reserve advanced tickets online or in-person the day-of show.

Hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated in 1948. To Israelis, it was the War of Independence, to Palestinians it was "Al Nakba" (The Catastrophe). In the late 1990s, graduate student Teddy Katz conducted research into a large-scale massacre that had allegedly occurred in the village of Tantura during the Nakba. His work later came under attack and his reputation was ruined, but 140 hours of audio testimonies remain. Director Alon Schwarz revisits former Israeli soldiers as well as Palestinian residents in an effort to re-examine what happened in Tantura.

In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles.

Additional donations may be made at any time by going to PCRF’s donation page.

CRITIC’S PICK! “A disturbing portrait of how very human impulses — passivity, rationalization, social pressures — can shape the writing of history.” Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times

“Tantura, a haunting unearthing, gives voice to a tragedy that must never be forgotten.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com