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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. There's a new documentary that will have a screening on Long Island next week that is, unfortunately, very timely right now more so than the filmmakers probably anticipated when they were making it. It's called Mourning in Lod. That's mourning, as in being in grief, in Lod. Lod is a city in Israel between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with a mixed Jewish and Arab population.

The film documents three families; one Jewish, one Muslim, one Christian, whose lives become intertwined during the last Israel-Hamas war, which was in 2021. The film is mostly in Hebrew and Arabic, but near the beginning, the scene is set by a snippet of a news report in English.

News Reporter: Tension grows as the situation between Hamas and the Israeli military escalates and the skies become a battlefield. Riots spread through mixed Arab and Jewish cities. Jewish civilians attack a man they believe to be Arab. Arab civilians attack people they believe to be Jewish. Violence has reached new levels in the past days.

Brian Lehrer: We will also play one clip in Hebrew and one in Arabic from the film as we go, and I'll read the translations when we do. Mourning in Lod will be shown at the Hamptons Doc Festival, a documentary festival that started yesterday and runs into next week. The screening will be next Tuesday, December 5th, at 3:00 PM at the Bay Street Theater at 1 Bay Street in Sag Harbor. With us now, the director of Mourning in Lod, Hilla Medalia, a Peabody Award-winning and three-time Emmy-nominated documentarian based in Israel. Hilla, thank you for joining us. Welcome to WNYC.

Hilla Medalia: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Would you give our listeners the basics, maybe describe the city of Lod and why you wanted to make a documentary about the situation there in 2021?

Hilla Medalia: Lod is exactly like you said, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It's actually the city where the airport-- when you're flying to Tel Aviv airport, it's actually in Lod. What's interesting about the city is that it's one of five so-called mixed city, where Jewish Israeli and Palestinian Israelis are living supposedly side by side but there is tension. It's a tense coexistence. What happened is that, often, when there is a situation like now, those are really places that we really see the two community meets, so there is often a lot of tension.

The film started when [unintelligible 00:02:56], who is the head of TV documentary, read an article about this thing that happened. I tend to say that every two years, there is another round of violence. Of course, now we are in the midst of a very, very, very violent round that I haven't seen in my life before, so it's really, very tense.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. We played that news clip from May of 2021, which sounds like something that could have been aired any day in the last almost two months now since October 7th. That Israel-Hamas military escalation as the clip calls it barely broke through as a news story in this country, unlike what's happening now. What was going on in May 2021 before we get to the three family stories?

Hilla Medalia: Yes. There were air missiles throwing for Gaza, Israeli airstrike over Gaza. There is another round of, I hate to say, almost like a regular unfortunate situation, but of course, since October 7th, it's a whole different level of-- What we faced was really tremendous, the massacre, but on the other hand, what the people in Gaza are going through now, it's really insane, crazy. I really feel that Mourning in Lod is more relevant now maybe than it was when I finished it or when I started filming it two years ago because I think that it's really about love and about grief and tension.

It has all those things together and it's really about-- One of the first days of this tension two years ago, there was a Palestinian Israeli, Arab Israeli man who was killed by Jewish Israelis and the situation escalated in the city itself. The next day, there was an Israeli Jewish man that was killed by the Palestinian Arab Israelis and his family [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: Let me jump ahead of you and play clips-

Hilla Medalia: Sorry, go ahead.

Brian Lehrer: -pertaining to each of those victims and their families. You mentioned love as well as mourning and grief, and that's one of the beautiful things in the film, the love that gets expressed, and we'll get to this, not just within each family, but between the families. Here's a clip in Arabic from the film. I'll read the translation afterwards.

It's just 20 seconds of the wife of the man named Musa who was killed in the streets. Her name is Marwa, and Marwa is showing a video made at the scene that actually captures Musa's killing. This is 20 seconds in Arabic to respect those of you who can understand it, who speak Arabic, and then I'll translate.

Marwa: [Arabic language].

Brian Lehrer: The English subtitles during that clip say, "He was here on the corner, standing here. Look at the distance. You went there and saw. When Musa fell down, you can see his two hands very clearly. Nothing fell out of them." Then we hear someone on the tape, as listeners as you heard, saying, "Al Akbar, Al Akbar." Marwa, his wife, was making a point, I guess, that with nothing in Musa's hands, he couldn't have been killed by anyone in self-defense. Tell our listeners more. Who was Musa?

Hilla Medalia: Musa is a resident of Lod. He's a father, he's a husband, he's a child. He was visiting his family. He has a lot of relatives that are living next to him. Him and his wife were supposed to actually fly the next morning to Dubai. He was on the streets, very close to his house, going to get his car, and he was shot at the circle. There was a lot of tension on the street, there was a lot of violence, there was stone-throwing, et cetera. Then there was a guy who basically shot and one bullet, but it hit his heart and he fell and he died.

It was a Jewish man who shot, and this man was never arrested, was never brought to trial. In the film, Musa's father talked about how he compare himself to the African Americans in Chicago and the lack of justice that is happening in America. The next day, as I said earlier, the tension escalated and then there was a Jewish man, Yigal Yehoshua, who was killed, who was murdered by Arab Palestinians in the city.

Brian Lehrer: Right. Let's get to that killing, the next day, as you say. That's May 11th, 2021. As you document in the film, during a protest against Musa's killing, a man named Yigal is killed also in Lod. Here's 20 seconds of his wife Ira, also showing a video of that scene. This time it's 20 seconds in Hebrew, and then I'll translate.

Ira: [Hebrew language].

Brian Lehrer: The subtitles on that, on the film, say, "The stone that hit him was thrown somewhere around here. It penetrated the car through the broken window, and we found the rock here between the seats." I guess, Hilla, that seems to make the point visually that if people say about throwing rocks, oh, it's only throwing rocks, those rocks can kill people. Yes?

Hilla Medalia: Of course. What's even more special is that Ira, the wife of Yigal, made a decision to donate his organs when he died, and his kidney was donated to a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, Randa Oweis. She saved his life. Also, other organs saved other people. In his death, he saved the life of five other people, including Randa Oweis, a Palestinian. It's almost like a full circle.

Obviously, they didn't choose who the organs will go to, but when they found out that it went to a Palestinian woman, they really embraced her and met her and invited her over and were very supportive that that's what happened.

Brian Lehrer: It's such an unexpected turn, and I didn't even know if you wanted to say it out loud because it's a little bit of a spoiler. I was going to give people a chance to tune out for a minute knowing that we were going to do this little bit of a spoiler on the unexpected turn in the film after you've been documenting the lives and the very sympathetic families of both men who were killed and also showing that both the Arab and Jewish victims were basically regular guys, even particularly nice guys, who were not very political and both cases knew and interacted with and even hung out with people from the other group increasing the tragedy.

This unexpected turn when Yigal's family has to decide whether to donate his organs, and they do, and an Arab woman gets her life saved by Yigal's kidney and she goes to a memorial service for Yigal and meets the family and they're all very emotional and supportive of each other, why did you decide to include that as part of this story? Because It's not about the Arab-Israeli conflict per se.

Hilla Medalia: I started actually with Yigal and the kidney donation to the Palestinian from East Jerusalem when I was filming because I thought how our life are intertwined. It might sound a bit-- I don't know, but imagine there is a Palestinian woman that has a Jewish organ inside her body. I think that was my entry point, but when I started filming, this is when I was exposed to also the story of Musa and the lack of justice. I thought that I need to tell the three stories in order to-- it's part of the story is how we are so connected, and there are so many issues and difficult and things.

Then what's incredible are those three women, the wife of Musa, Marwa, and the wife of Yigal, Ira. Then there is Randa and her daughter [unintelligible 00:13:01]. You have this ensemble of really incredible women who on one hand wants to live and create a really good life for her kids. As you said, there are regular people who are really trying whatever they can to make their life and the future of their kids better. They're very inspiring and brave. I think that's the heart for me in this film.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, no doubt. Yigal and his family didn't know and never asked or never tried to direct who his organs would go to. The kidney wound up in this Arab Christian woman who we see so beautifully recover from a very serious illness, which was because of her kidney in the film. You do report-- you are arguing that justice is not equal in this film, that people are charged with killing Yigal but not with killing Musa. Yet, all three families have humanized each other as individuals almost separate from or despite that. What do you hope viewers will take away from that juxtaposition?

Hilla Medalia: First of all, I think that with life and acknowledging the pain of the other, we can overcome and come to a lot. I know now it seems, especially to people who are very involved in what's happening here, the future looks so dark. I think if we can have empathy to each other and we can really give our hands-- again, it sounds like, "Oh my God, she is illusionary thinking of peace and how we can live together," but I really think we can. Six months after I finished shooting the film, I invited the three to the house actually of my parents and they came, the three families.

It was so beautiful to see them together or when we screened the film in Tel Aviv and we finished the screening and you see the three families standing outside the theater and talking and despite all the differences and the challenge and the political violence. At the end of the day, the Hassouna family and the Yehoshua family, they lost their dear ones and they have a lot of things in common. They can feel empathy and they can support each other and be together. I think to me, that's really a very important message also.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, I also did watch that 18-minute addendum, that separate little film that you were just referring to where the principals in the documentary gather with you and discuss their experiences mostly since. Will that also be screened in Sag Harbor on Tuesday?

Hilla Medalia: We usually give it almost like it's the Q&A. Sometimes if I'm there, I'll talk to the audience and open the question and then share that. I'm not going to be there, unfortunately. I was actually at the Hamptons Film Festival on October 7th when this war started, and it was very tragic and--

Brian Lehrer: Yes. There was a different Hamptons Film Festival. Are you telling me that you screened this film on Long Island on October 7th?

Hilla Medalia: That's right. Not only that, I will also share with you that Lior Waitzman and the guy that did the sound editing of this film was murdered on October 7th. He lives in [unintelligible 00:16:48] and he was riding his bike on his morning workout. I started the screening with sharing that with the audience. That's also something that wherever I go, I try to share in his memory, but also, with almost a call for stopping this, what's happening, and calling for a cease-fire and the return of the hostages and to figure out a way.

To me, when I see these women and how they can find a way to communicate, again, it was, I don't know, God, faith, however you call it, that their life intertwined, but they find a way to create some kind of a relationship between them. I'm sure we can somehow create a better future. We are so connected-

Brian Lehrer: You sound-

Hilla Medalia: -to each other.

Brian Lehrer: -like you have some hope at a time when so many people are speaking in hopeless terms, and especially in the 18-minute addendum, everyone involved seems to want peace and for the violence to stop in all directions. This was filmed before October 7th, but it was bad enough before that. They even seem to want to work for it together in some way. Two of the men in that addendum film seem to be saying to each other, "Let's do that." I'm just curious if anything organized has come of the unexpected contact that these three families have had with each other.

Hilla Medalia: They tried, but I think that October 7th changed a lot of things. I do think most people are very sad. There is a lot of sad and depressed and it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you're in the situation that we are at. It's also hard for me, but again, I look at these people and I really get hopes from those mothers and those women. I wish more women will be handling the situation that we are in. I really believe it could only help us.

Brian Lehrer: We did get a text message from a listener in one of our conversations on the show post-October 7th that said, "Put women in charge of all sides and then we'll find a solution." It sounds like you agree with that.

Hilla Medalia: I would. I think it's complicated. I don't think it's easy. I'm not naive. I understand the complication, but also, I really believe people want to live. People want to have freedom and equal rights. Also, within Israel, I think it's our job, and I'm saying our as a Jew, our job is to also make sure that the Palestinian Israeli, the Arab Israeli have equal rights.

Only yesterday, there were two Bedouin Muslim hostages kids. One was 17 and a girl that was even younger, who were released. They were taken hostage by Hamas. They're suffering the same way that we are. I think that we need to remember that, and that's also why I'm so upset that there is no justice for Musa. I think it's also important for us as a community and for everybody in Israel.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Before you go, do you want to say a short piece about how this film fits into your body of work? I mentioned in the intro you've won a Peabody Award, you've been nominated for Emmys three times. Listeners, my guest, who we're just about wrapping up with, is the documentary filmmaker, Hilla Medalia, Israeli, now the director of Mourning in Lod. I'll tell you again where it's going to be shown on Long Island next week when we finish up. How does this, for people who don't know your work, fit into your body of work?

Hilla Medalia: Sadly, I live here. I lived in the US for 14 years, but I was born and raised here, and I've been back for over 10 years now. Obviously, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a big part of my life, so I have been making a lot of films about the conflict. I think, in general, I'm making mainly documentaries and different films relate to social issues and other topics that are socially important. A lot of time about people's personal stories that reflects on something bigger.

It's definitely a film like-- Obviously, every film is different, but it definitely fits within the rest of my work. I'm always looking for peace and solution and wishing for long-term peace in the region and equal rights to everybody.

Brian Lehrer: Well, keep working for it. A beautiful and sad and hopeful and heartwarming film. Mourning in Lod will be shown at the Hamptons Doc Fest, the documentary festival that started yesterday and runs into next week. The screening will be next Tuesday, December 5th at 3:00 PM at the Bay Street Theater at 1 Bay Street in Sag Harbor. Director Hilla Medalia, thank you so much for joining us.

Hilla Medalia: Thanks. Bye.

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