Love During Wartime

A teenager moves to the big city, meets a girl who lives in the neighborhood, and they fall in love and get married. It sounds simple enough, but nothing has been easy for Osama Zatar and Jasmin Avissar — he’s a Muslim artist who moved from Palestine to Tel Aviv when he was fifteen, and she’s a Jewish ballet dancer who was born and raised in Israel. Israeli law prevents Zatar from living in Tel Aviv with Avissar, and violent unrest makes it dangerous for the couple to maintain a home in the West Bank, and Osama and Jasmin’s attempts to settle in Germany (her mother was born there) have been met with legal and emotional obstacles at every turn. Filmmaker Gabriella Bier follows the couple’s efforts to live together and build a family, while political forces and several types of prejudice keep them apart, in the documentary Love During Wartime. The film also offers a look into Avissar’s work as a dancer, Zatar’s career as a sculptor, and his political activism which sometimes makes their situation even more complicated. Love During Wartime received its North American premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.