Issa’s house – new film by Tomer Heymann

The Robert Weil Family Foundation are proud supporters of the documentary ISSA’S HOUSE.

Hopefully ready to screen in spring 2025 the film centers around Issa Amro, who has dedicated his life to protecting a house in Hebron. Together with a small group, he guards the home day and night. Issa is a well-known Palestinian civil rights activist and practitioner of non-violent resistance who was in 2010 nominated “human rights defender of the year in Palestine” by the UN. He is also the founder of the Youth Against Settlements (YAS) organization, a group that advocates against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. In ISSA’S HOUSE, Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann is granted unprecedented access to Issa and YAS—not just as a journalist or a documentarian, but as a friend in unity.
 
The house that Issa and YAS protect is the last Palestinian-owned property in the Israeli-controlled H2 section of Hebron next to Shuhada Street in the Old City. Also known as “Apartheid Street,” Shuhada Street is the main road leading to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and was once a bustling market place and central location for the Hebron region. After decades of political unrest, the street is now permanently closed to Palestinians. Issa’s house covers the last few centimeters that messianic Settlers must occupy in order to close the gap and create an “Arab-free zone.” At a critical juncture in the troubled history of Israeli democracy, Issa and his friends pose an existential threat to the entire narrative of the occupation.
 
Non-violent resistance is a concept so radical that only its true practitioners understand the full weight of its ability to undermine systems of oppression. ISSA’S HOUSE tells their stories in their own voices.
 
Tomer Heymann, director and producer of Issa’s House, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose career has spanned over two decades and includes some of the most successful films in the history of Israeli documentary cinema. His films are screened in festivals worldwide and have received prizes at the Berlinale, The Israeli Academy of Film and Television, Hot Docs, SXSW, and IDFA. His recent films include “Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance” (2015), “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” (2016), “Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life” (2019), and “I Am Not” (2021).