5 Broken Cameras

I'm not sure it's possible to emotionally detach from a film about such a strong and controversial subject manner, so I won't even try. This documentary does an amazing job showing the first person perspective of oppression and injustice in a way no other medium has done for me. By the end, I was emotionally drained, which made the final scenes incredibly relieving.

5 Broken Cameras: A documentary made from a Palestinian's perspective on the conflict in the West Bank. A good film, and told from a personal point of view rather than a national one. But I do have some reservations. There are two sides to every conflict, and it does portray the Palestinians as nothing but victims, which while I'm sure most of them are and just want to live in peace, there are still instigators on both sides. So, it's a touching if lopsided documentary.

Provides a very personal perspective on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, without resorting to excessive sentimentality or agitation.

It's a very personal documentary that takes you right in the middle of the injustice done by the Israeli government, happening in a small village at West Bank. It is also a documentary about the film maker's family. The acts of the Israeli army seem as incomprehensible to his youngest child as they should seem to everyone.

My absolute favourite for the docu Oscar. Simple yet powerfully told. The importance of the topic is beyond question.

Very effective documentary about raising a family in a conflict. It's not shot amazingly well but it's hard to really use that as a major critique considering the circumstances. He does manage to catch one of the most disturbing and upsetting images I've ever seen in a documentary.

A remarkably cohesive documentary culled from the persistent footage of a West Bank farmer over several years. The writing, editing, pacing - even the handicam footage - are all fantastic, and the narrative is conducted fluidly, utterly without digression, attending to the humanity of subject while never becoming sentimental. Structurally and content-wise, it is the most pointed and poetic documentary among hundreds I've viewed over the last several years.

It has all the limitations of a first-person perspective, making it pointless to criticize it for one-sidedness, but it would have helped if some vital pieces of info weren't oddly missing - such as what Emad Burnat actually does for a living. That said, 5 Broken Cameras gives a good idea of how frustrating life has been for a resident of Bil'in in the years leading up to its conclusion. It offers no context, no bird's eye perspective of the conflict, but as one man's testimony it is honest.

Not much to say, it unfolds as one would expect.

Like most docs, it's one that must've been found in the editing room, and given its 'what you see is what you get' approach and countless hours of rushes, I can easily imagine dodgy material and controversial footage having been left on the cutting room floor. What this doc depicts honestly, however, is the seemingly endless cycle in which the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is destined to be caught. The more I think about it, the more saddened I am by this never-ending dispute.

Burnat is a brave man, but his movie isn't that great.

FBC is devastating. It shows the completely uncaring nature of oppressors. Attacking protestors, kidnapping children, destroying people's lives. How do you get to the point where you murder someone who is no threat just for doing something you don't like? The conflict is so lopsided it makes you feel hopeless, and furious. Despite that i still wish we had the same perspective from victims elsewhere. Or perhaps how other groups, like women, experience the situation. Anything to help us see.

Yes its biased, but in a way that compensates for the bias we're used to, and two wrongs make a right. Right? Right.

The asymmetry of force was shocking but the reasoning behind the protests and their particular form wasn't explained. Not in a way I understood anyhow, seemed incomplete.

Trying to raise a family in a warzone is no easy task. Very sad seeing the Israelis rape the land and murder its inhabitants.

A simple but very important documentary about apartheid in occupied Palestine, seen through the eyes of one of its victims. Debunks a lot of misinformation, showing the Israeli government to be very much in control of the situation. Sometimes the Israeli soldiers get bored of incapacitating peaceful protesters by shooting out their legs, and just straight out murder them.

The conflict is interesting, but Emad is not a gifted storyteller, and with its informational gaps and strong bias, 5 Broken Cameras comes off as only half a documentary.