They are young and hungry for life, have academic degrees, their lifestyle is urban. Cool guys who want to prove that they represent a new generation. Khader, Fadi and Naeem have Israeli passports but consider themselves Palestinians first and foremost. They are also vegetarians, atheists and feminists. And most of all gay. While Naeem is still struggling with his coming out, Khader is a step further. His boyfriend is an Israeli. They are all outsiders, which unites them. Even if they can immerse themselves in the anonymity of long party nights in Tel Aviv, reality always catches up with them: a family who turn their backs and Israelis who are prejudiced against every Palestinian, straight or gay. The political conflict dominates everything.

British filmmaker Jake Witzenfeld followed his three friends over more than a year to get a look behind their cool facades. He makes them pose, arranges music clips, becomes part of their life, accompanies them on visits to their parents – and finds moments when the utopia of another life seems possible. In all the political and racist roaring and yelling the three friends seem like lambs.

Cornelia Klauß

Guns that shoot around corners, so-called “cornershots”, are among the more profitable special developments of the Israeli arms industry. The army had already tested them in house-to-house fighting before they went on to become an international bestseller. A conspicuous number of former army employees enter the arms industry. They supply not only the tools of war, but the practical experience, too. War as a field of experimentation for the arms industry?
Israel is the fourth-largest arms exporter today. Director Yotam Feldman wants to find out whether the country’s wealth, however unevenly distributed it may be, exists in spite of or precisely because of military conflicts. So he talks to those who ought to know: the leading minds of a deathly industry. He is there when they receive diplomats from all over the world and visit arms fairs. When military philosophers think up the superstructure and the Brazilian police follow suit. “The Lab” is an investigative film in the best sense. As opposed to the likes of Michael Moore, Feldman does not play the provocateur. This seeming neutrality allows him to come really terrifyingly close to those dealers and their logic. This ought to be instructive for German citizens, too. After all, Germany ranks third among the global arms exporters.

Lars Meyer