Tal Michael

2023. Tahsin Mansour lives across the Palestinian village of Azzoun. Once its mayor, he hasn't entered the village for years, fearing for his life. When the war broke out, a roadblock was installed, turning his house into an enclave - neither Palestinian nor Israeli. Tahsin reminisces on his days as a former leader of the Village Leagues: As Palestinian nationalism unites around the PLO in the 70s, the Israeli defense ministry offers incentives to a moderate leadership which will lay the ground for a diplomatic pact. The project draws fire from the Arab world and Israeli entities, declaring the Leagues members traitors. When this project fails, they become persecuted in their own homes.

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Shortly after the death of his special uncles, Didier Frenkel descends into the basement of their shared home and finds a treasure: an ancient archive of animated films from Egypt starring Mish-Mish Effendi, the Arab equivalent of Mickey Mouse. His uncles kept this surprising chapter of their lives under cover. Didier begins restoring the films and unveils the story of the rise and fall of these pioneers of Arab animation. Surprisingly, Didier's mother strongly opposes the project.

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2023. Tahsin Mansour lives across the Palestinian village of Azzoun. Once its mayor, he hasn't entered the village for years, fearing for his life. When the war broke out, a roadblock was installed, turning his house into an enclave - neither Palestinian nor Israeli. Tahsin reminisces on his days as a former leader of the Village Leagues: As Palestinian nationalism unites around the PLO in the 70s, the Israeli defense ministry offers incentives to a moderate leadership which will lay the ground for a diplomatic pact. The project draws fire from the Arab world and Israeli entities, declaring the Leagues members traitors. When this project fails, they become persecuted in their own homes.

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"Collaborate" tells the story of Palestinian collaborators with the State of Israel who were exposed, ostracized by their people, and are now trying to find their way back to their homes, their people, and their identity: Bahaa, a informant who is released from Palestinian prison and flees to Israel in order to build a home for his new family; Abed, a senior source in the Shin Bet who, after many years living in Israel, is searching for a way back to the Palestinian village he left as a child; and Younes, a land collaborator on his deathbed, trying to create a new future for his family. The personal story is intertwined with the national story, in which the land brokers function as instruments of war in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This story is told in the voices of senior security officials.

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