Filming the homeland: Cinema in Eretz Israel and the Zionist movement, 1917-1939

The cinematic depiction of the historical return of the Jewish people to their homeland from 1917 through 1939 is the subject of this essay. After four centuries of consecutive Ottoman rule, which left a profound mark on the country, in 1917 the British conquered Eretz Israel, demarcating its political and administrative borders and shaping its regime and legal structure. These transformations contributed to the Zionist movement's endeavor to establish the Jewish National Home and to bring about the birth of the "New Jew" in Eretz Israel. Various creative disciplines began evolving in the country, including film, which was launched not only as a means of documenting and presenting the historical narrative but also as a method of constructing it. The development of cinema paralleled the fruition of other ventures initiated by members of the first generation of national revival, who experienced a tremendous metamorphosis as a result of their immigration to the country, and was later advanced by the second generation that was born into the new reality.