Synopsis

For the first time, this documentary project explores in depth the work and experiences of staff members in the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). After 50 years of work, ACRI has agreed to lift its anonymity and key staff members have agreed to cameras document their lives and their daily experiences at work. As they defend human and civil rights, the staff members face personal threats, violence, and the racist forces that have strengthened enormously in Israel over recent years, particularly since October 7. These forces threaten Israel’s soul and character.

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The TV project (documentary series/documentary Feature film) will follow four women who are key members of the ACRI team:
Sivan Tahel (30), an energetic young woman who works as a field researcher. Sivan has for years stood on the front line of opposition to violence by the establishment and the police. A Mizrahi feminist who works with diverse disadvantaged groups, Sivan collects evidence of discrimination and violence and challenges the abuse of power by the authorities.
Roni Peli (44), an attorney who works on issues involving East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Roni has been active for years in defending Arab residents trapped in the east Jerusalem neighborhoods that are under Israeli control but isolated from the city. One of Roni’s relatives was kidnapped on October 7 from the Nova music festival. She has faced personal and professional dilemmas and has been forced to reexamine her positions in the complex reality facing Israel.
Anne Sucio (45), an attorney who arrived in Israel with her family after they fled Romania. Anne’s work focuses on the relations between the police and citizens. Before the October 7 attack, she joined a coalition of women’s organizations called Gun-Free Kitchen Tables that is opposing the current government’s policy of liberalizing rules for issuing firearms licenses and guns to citizens, increasing the danger of homicides and domestic violence.
Abir Joubran (45), an attorney born in Nazareth specializes in challenging state violence against Bedouin Arabs in the Negev, particularly in the “unrecognized villages.” These communities exist without access roads, electricity, water, or protection against rocket fire. Their residents are marginalized despite the fact that they are productive members of society. Abir sees the effort by Israel to gather the Bedouin in large towns as a paternalistic attempt to eliminate the unique Bedouin way of life.
This is a struggle by individuals who expose their injuries, beliefs, and pains but who never give up the struggle, even in the face of failures, and who continue to believe in the ability of every human to change the reality of their own life and the life of their nation.