White City

Last of a trilogy dedicated to forgotten facts of history, in this film the Israeli artist Dani Gal again question show the memorization of personal and collective history originates, and how it transcends space and time. White City is built around the complex personality of Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943), a founding father of Zionist thought, and a promoter of peaceful coexistence of Jewish and Palestinian populations in the Middle East before the State of Israel was founded. His interest in the science of race explains an early 1930s visit, staged by the director, to German anthropologist Hans F.K.Gunther, who later influenced Nazi racial thought. Dani Gal’s manipulation of historical material penetrates past and present, imagination and reality. Ruppin’s dialogue with Guntheron race, politics and culture evokes questions on the conditions and objectives of their respective peoples. The background is the Weissenhof Estate, a Stuttgart district known for its modernist architecture. The monologues and dialogues are based on Ruppin’s journals.