On November 30, Scandinavia House presents a screening of Sweden’s official entry for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards: the revealing archival film Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989.

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 by archival film maestro Göran Hugo Olsson (The Black Power Mixtape) is assembled from a vast stockpile of striking footage catalogued in the vaults of Sweden’s national television service SVT, where Swedish journalists witness and represent accounts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Olsson interweaves stories of the beginning of the Israeli state with the Palestinian struggle for independence. The film includes news coverage with Yasser Arafat and interviews with Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban during a visit to Sweden that have not been shown since their first broadcast.

From the tenth anniversary of Israel’s founding to the First Intifada, perspectives and encounters with statesmen, civilians, revolutionaries, and intellectuals tell the story from myriad angles of an evolving media landscape, revivifying a history of the conflict. (Sweden, 2024)

“Illuminating, even-handed… exhaustive in its detail and balanced in its spread of voices… refreshingly restrained.”
—Screen Daily (UK)

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