The movie, called Home Game, focuses on the youth of the Gush Katif agricultural community of Netzer Hazani. It follows the parallel struggles to both win both the annual basketball tournament and remain in the homes they grew up in – climaxing with the final game, set to take place August 15th – the day after Jews were legally banned from remaining in Gaza.



The movie is the inadvertent labor of love of organizational psychologist Avi Abelow. “One of my goals, via this movie, is to help people connect more personally with who these people are and what they went through because we are one country,” he told Israel National Radio’s Alex Traiman. “We shouldn’t be infighting, we should be fighting our enemies together.”



Abelow, a resident of the Gush Etzion town of Efrat, took a month’s leave of absence from work in Tel Aviv to volunteer in Gush Katif prior to the Disengagement. He was acquainted with organic farmer Anita Tucker of Netzer Hazani and when he asked her if his services could be used in her community, she answered in the affirmative.



“I didn’t have a video camera,” Abelow recalled. “I’m an organizational psychologist, a change management consultant, I have no connection with the media whatsoever, but when the people in Efrat heard I got into Gush Katif, they said, ‘We want to get a video camera in to you in order to film the violence of the police and the soldiers.’ I eventually realized there wasn’t going to be much violence and began just filming life in the community, hoping it wouldn’t be a memory - but just in case.”



The day the forced expulsion began, Abelow found himself running from house to house, trying to get everything on tape. “From my footage, I ended up putting together a four-minute clip that was forwarded around the world.”



An attached note accompanying the clip promised anyone who donated to the Netzer Hazani refugees would receive the full version of Abelow’s footage once he finished production. He raised 12,000 shekels, but once he began editing his footage with a director, realized that much more footage was necessary.



“I began gathering footage and got over 80 hours from 15 different families in Netzer Hazani alone,” Abelow recalls, saying he found himself thinking, “My G-d, what these people went through and who these people are must be seen by everyone, by all of Israel, to allow everyone and see that the settlers are our brothers.”



Abelow blames, among other things, a hostile media for turning the residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza into foreigners in the eyes of a large segment of the Israeli public. He believes the film has the potential to overcome such perceptions using sports metaphors many Israelis are already familiar with. “While we were watching the footage we saw we had a lot of footage from the basketball games and it occurred to us to use it as a metaphor, transposing the struggle to win with the struggle stay in one’s home.”



The producers ultimately hope to get the movie aired on Israeli television, but are launching it the week prior to the Fast of Tisha B’Av (the anniversary of the destruction of both Jewish temples, other national disasters and the Disengagement) to be screened in community centers and synagogues across Israel, as well as in North America and elsewhere.



Although some have the custom not to view movies for entertainment during the three-week and nine-day period leading up to Tisha B'Av, educational films are often screened during that period, particularly dealing with the Holocaust and other Jewish historic tragedies. Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzsky, former chief rabbi of Gush Katif, told Abelow that the film could even be seen during the week of Tisha Ba'av. "Since the movie deals with the uprooting of families from Gush Katif, it is permitted to watch the movie during the nine days, and even during the week of week of Tisha B'Av," he said.



“We want as many people to go out and see it as possible,” Abelows said. “Initially, the ‘orange people’ will see it on July 30th and 31st but we hope once we get it aired on television, that all Israelis will have the opportunity to see it.”



A trailer can be viewed by clicking here and listings of show times and venues by clicking here.

More information on the film can be found at its web site: http://www.homegamethemovie.com



People interested in screening the movie in their community can email: info [at] homegamethemovie.com