The daunting testimonies of shattered young Israeli soldiers returning from the country’s 1967 Six Day War are finally revealed following 45 years of censorship in Mor Loushy’s potent documentary.

A week after the Six-Day War in 1967, which resulted in Israel’s critical victory over its neighbouring states and the tripling of the area under its direct control, a group of young Kibbutzniks led by acclaimed writer Amos Oz recorded intimate conversations with Israeli soldiers returning from the front. Miles away from the euphoria of victory, the testimonies revealed ordinary men who were guilt-ridden and stunned at the horrors inflicted on Arab civilians, foretelling further troubles to come. Most of these recordings were immediately suppressed in the interests of national morale and buried by the Israeli army, silencing doubts about the legitimacy of the war in Israel’s collective consciousness.

Now, for the first time these conversations have been revealed in their entirety. With unprecedented access to the recordings, interweaved with rarely seen footage of the conflict, and the surviving interview subjects responding to their original testimony, this is devastating and topical material. A crucial document of an authentic historical moment that perhaps today can teach us something new in our understanding of the seemingly never-ending Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

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