What would you do if someone took what was yours? At the border between Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Israeli government is building a separation wall that snakes through several Palestinian villages. Budrus, population 1,500, stands to lose 300 acres and 3,000 of the olive trees that are crucial to the town's survival. But husband and father Ayed—whose activistic behavior has landed him in prison before—is determined to act.

"We don't have time for wars," Ayed says. "We want to raise our families." Indeed, entire families become involved in the nonviolent protest, with Ayed's own teenage daughter standing with other women and young people literally at the front of the marches. Award-winning documentarian Julia Bacha's (Encounter Point, TFF '06) engagingly produces an inspirational film. Her raw, handheld video captures the chaos at the front lines as the Israeli soldiers' nightsticks start flying and their rubber bullets give way to real ones. Soon rival parties Fatah and Hamas, Western activists, and even groups of Israelis are united peaceably behind the people of Budrus, allowing us a galvanizing glimpse into the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary changes in one of the most war-torn parts of the world.

Julia Bacha