House (UK Premiere) by La Colline – Théâtre National (Paris) at the Barbican by Tanica Psalmist

UK premiere of House, written and directed by award-winning Israeli-French filmmaker Amos Gitaï. One of France’s most prestigious national organisations, La Colline – théâtre national, produces this large-scale multi-disciplinary stage adaptation of Gitaï‘s ground-breaking documentary trilogy.

House was written by Amos Gitaï, a 1980 documentary about a stone house in West Jerusalem that changed hands with changes in government.

Beautifully shot in both colour & black & white, the film focuses on Palestinian stonecutters chopping building blocks at a stone quarry, focusing & working on the building.

House examines the complex relationships between the residents of the former stone quarry – Eastern European immigrants, survivors of the camps and Arabs who have also been expelled from their homes due to the wars in Israel. Amos Gitaï magnifies the valley by turning them into a symbol of a possible coexistence.

The introspective & biographical elements within family origins depicts the interlink to generations, the architectural studies, the making of the House and its effects; and the experience of the Yom Kippur War, which had reflected communities & the unique stories untold.

The production ‘HOUSE’ presents an evocation of an ongoing intimate and common experiences served with sensitive base of individuals sharing Israeli-Palestinian background history.

Overall, the house (which functions as both a character and a metaphor) holds different meanings for both the people who worked on it and those who lived there, including: the Palestinian Dajani family who owned it until 1948; the Algerian Jewish couple who acquired it in 1956; the Ashkenazi professor who is the current owner; the Iraqi Jewish contractor; and the stonecutter from near Beit Jalah. This play soulfully responds to thoughtful connections with undemanding honesty.

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