Once I Entered a Garden

Once I Entered a Garden

2012. Israel/France/Switzerland. Directed by Avi Mograbi. It begins with a dream about an impossible encounter between Avi Mograbi and his grandfather, Ibrahim, outside their Damascus home in 1920. What language did they speak? Avi's Arabic is rudimentary, while Ibrahim had yet to learn Hebrew. To bring his dream to life, Avi turns to his Arabic teacher and good friend, Ali Al-Azhari, and suggests that they make a movie together "to the last touch," as Ali puts it. In typical Mograbi style, the filmmaker interweaves a narrative about filmmaking with the film itself, a film about identity that questions our basic assumptions about what makes us who we are. Courtesy Doc and Film International. (IS) In Arabic, Hebrew; English subtitles. 97 min.