About

In early 2023, a government plan to weaken Israel's judiciary brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets. Citizens who had never sought public roles became organizers and leaders of an unprecedented protest movement. After October 7, the infrastructure created to oppose the government became an emergency network filling the vacuum it had left behind. The same volunteers who organized demonstrations began locating the missing and distributing food, medicine and essential support. Filmed from within this movement, Awakening follows the transformation of civic protest into civic responsibility - and asks what democracy demands from citizens when the institutions meant to protect them fall short.

Filmmakers' Statement

We began filming in early 2023, as Israelis who had never seen themselves as activists entered the streets and discovered that democracy could not be taken for granted. After October 7, we watched the movement's infrastructure transform almost overnight. Networks built for protest became networks of emergency response, and the questions at the heart of the film became more difficult. This is a film made from inside one part of a divided society. We did not try to balance it from outside. We tried to film the people we were with honestly - without flattery, without despair and without turning them into symbols.

A protester cries out in Kaplan Street, Tel Aviv, during the anti-judicial reform demonstrations.Photo: Asaf Shafir
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