To See If I’m Smiling

NEW DOCS

There’s a moment in this extraordinary film by Tamar Yaron when you will realize the horrifying meaning of its title. That moment brings into focus, like no film I have ever seen, the complex, oftentimes incomprehensible process that makes everyday, regular human beings complicit in war crimes. In less than an hour, without displaying a single violent graphic image, To See If I’m Smiling presents the confessions of six young Israeli women who served in the West Bank. As they tell their stories amid archival footage of their tours of duty, we are brought face to face with the painful truth of war: it corrupts and destroys everyone it touches. If you want to understand the mind-set that created Abu Ghraib, if you want to understand the price America is about to pay for its wars when the warriors come home, you’ll want to see this seminal film on the nature of evil.  RD

Director

Tamar Yarom

Producer

Tamar Yarom

Release Year

2007

Festival Year

2008

Country

Israel

Run Time

59 minutes

Premiere

US Premiere