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Osnat Trabelsi is an Israeli film producer. She is known for producing documentary films on political topics, especially those involving Palestine, the Mizrahi experience in Israel, women's issues, colonialism, racism, and more; and for melding her business with activism, promoting filmmaking in the geographical and social periphery of Israel. Arna's children, her debut, won many prizes around the world, like many more films of her that followed.
Help rebuild the Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank by donating here. Following this year's horrendous bombing of the theatre portrayed in the film ARNA'S CHILDREN, we watch Juliano's and Osnat's film again. It tells the story of how the theatre was built to provide creative shelter for Palestine's children, and give them a perspective of a future.
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The Freedom Theatre is a theatre and cultural centre in Jenin refugee camp, occupied Palestine. We stage professional theatre productions, hold theatre workshops in the refugee camp, Jenin town and villages, offer training in acting, pedagogy and photography, and publish books, exhibitions and short films.
Since we opened our doors in 2006, we have made theatre and visual art available to every young person in Jenin refugee camp. Our work has made Jenin refugee camp known in Palestine and internationally for innovative, thought-provoking theatre and media productions. We have created a generation of artists and leaders, who one day will be at the forefront of the Palestinian liberation movement.
The Theatre programme contains activities that introduce particularly the young generation to theatre and drama, providing them with important tools for dealing with the hardships of daily life under occupation. At the same time, The Freedom Theatre runs several professional training programmes with the aim of building up long-term capacity in the field of theatre, drama and applied theatre.
A theatre workshop with children of the Jenin refugee camp was filmed from 1989 to 2003 by Juliano, a prominent actor in Palestine and Israel, and Arna's son. In the film, Juliano moves us between past and present to tell the kids' stories and the role of art as a weapon against occupation. In 2011, Juliano was shot to death in front of the same theatre.
Arna came from a Jewish Zionist family and had met Juliano’s Palestinian father in the Communist party. She established an alternative educational system in Jenin in the West Bank to replace the formal one which was practically paralysed by the Israeli occupation
In Juliano's words: "Yussef committed a suicide attack. Ashraf was killed in the battle of Jenin. Alla leads a fighting troupe. I, Juliano, directed them from 1989 – 1996 in the Freedom Theatre since they were small children. In 2002, I returned to the ruins of the camp with my camera, to see what happened to the children I loved…My film tries to tell and understand their story and choices."
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