"Land" - Vermont International Film Festival

Born into a family of influential Zionist thinkers and archaeologists whose work helped shape the ideology of early Israel, filmmaker Orly Yadin sets out to examine the foundations of the worldview that defined her upbringing. The film unfolds as a metaphorical archaeological excavation: digging through layers of family history, ideology, and memory, and exploring how national identity is constructed—and how it changes when the stories we inherit are questioned. Archival home movies, photographs, and newsreels intersect with present-day conversations with Israelis and Palestinians. Animated sequences bring imagined encounters with the filmmaker’s ancestors to life, allowing the past to speak directly to the present. As the excavation deepens, the film reveals the blind spots embedded in the national narrative that shaped an entire generation. LAND ultimately becomes both a personal reckoning and a broader reflection on how identities—personal and national—are formed, sustained, and transformed.