Born in Jerusalem (2019)

• 67%
• 2019
• Hossein Shamaghdari

My name is "Mohammad". I grew up in a practicing Iranian muslim family. As a child, Israel was introduced to me as a great enemy and evil in the world. Every year my family and I would participate in anti-Israel demonstrations. the enmity between Iran and Israel has been gone so far as to forbid Iranians' travel to the "occupied land of Palestine", as clearly printed on the last page of my passport. All of these restrictions in regards to Israel only made me more curious and uncertain of my childhood teachings. I decided that I needed to face the zionists who I always chanted slogans of "down with you" against, and that the closest I could get to Israel would be Europe. So I made appointments with four zionists in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. This included: Assef, a social activist whose family was amongst the victims of the Holocaust; Amnon, a Rabbi and the head of a synagogue in Mannheim; Cennan, an ex-member of the Israeli intelligence services who now works as a reporter in a jewish news agency; and Svetlana, a jewish singer. Little did I know, this journey would forever change and challenge my perception of Israel that had priorly been based solely upon the representation of the media of the Islamic Republic of Iran.