SFJFF: There Was Nothing Here Before

Part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

In this thoughtful and complex documentary, Swiss-Palestinian filmmaker Yvann Yagchi visits his childhood friend who is now living in an Israeli settlement. Growing up in Switzerland together, the two men shared their formative years, but not long after Yagchi’s arrival in the West Bank, their relationship became strained, and the friends cut ties. Moving between the West Bank and Geneva, Yagchi finds a new story to tell. He speaks with his mother about her childhood, meets a cousin in East Jerusalem, and learns more about the life of his distinguished great-grandfather.

There Was Nothing Here Before becomes a poignant portrait of absence. As Yagchi comes to terms with the fact that their friendship may not survive the political realities of their identities, his moving documentary becomes an attempt to reconstruct what was there before—in their relationship as well as his family’s history. Through it all, he turns loss into presence, and realizes it is now his turn to act. —Karina Curry

United States Premiere