Kalandia: A Checkpoint Story

Kalandia: A Checkpoint Story chronicles how a small “temporary” military post, created in 2001 ostensibly in order to maintain security, went on to become a huge, entrenched terminal by 2008. Filmmaker Neta Efroni, a volunteer checkpoint monitor with the Israeli organization Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch, spent six years filming the ordinary lives of hundreds of people in an extraordinary place, the Qalandiya checkpoint on the road between Ramallah and Jerusalem. You will see the Palestinians from all walks of life waiting for hours in long, crowded queues—aching to reach their intended destinations, whether work, schools, hospitals, or houses of prayer—in Jerusalem and beyond. All are at the mercy of the decisions of the soldiers who staff the checkpoint, whose decision-making has no apparent rhyme or reason. Day by day, the capricious rules change without warning. Lives hang in the balance.