A RHINO’S TALE

• Directed by: Meital Zvieli

• Producer: Avigail Sperber

Docs up Fund awarded for best project at the Third Workshop of Close up Workshop April 2024

the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo draws visitors from across the societal spectrum: young and old, secular and religious, Muslims, Jews, and Christians, Palestinian and Israeli. Within its pristine grounds works zookeepers Rushdi, a Muslim

Palestinian from East Jerusalem, and Gilad, a Jewish Israeli from West Jerusalem. Along with a cast of human and animal characters, Rushdi and Gilad must navigate together a dying rhino named Shalom, zoo bureaucracy, international animal imports, and daily maintenance of one of the world’s most prestigious zoos.

All the while, Israel’s democracy crumbles from the inside and war rages on, shaking all in its path. Within the contentious city, the zoo serves as a metaphor for the larger socio-political landscape surrounding it, wrestling with notions of captivity, personal andpolitical relationships, and today’s seemingly futile wish for peace.