I have said it before and I will say it again...my number one thought process going into a documentary is whether or not I like or know anything about the subject...will it interest me? Many documentaries have shockingly passed this test over the years. The horse trainer documentary Buck and the high school documentaries Fame High and American Teen come to mind. In the near future...5 Broken Cameras will not be on that list of documentaries. It is an incredibly boring, totally dated and all too proud film in which Emad Burnat documents his life in Palestine. Mostly...it's the torture he went through with the Israeli army.
The cameras are supposed to tell five different parts of a story but there lies the first problem. All five stories involving the camera are told the same and feel the same in what happened and why. This is not helped by the fact that director Emad Burnat has narration that would make any yearn for the days of staring at a wall. Also..Guy Davidi co directed with Burnat who acts like he's the director of the whole film.
This brings me to my next issue which is that Burnat is all too proud of what he's doing. Sure...he is documenting a horrifying event but the event is so past its prime that I felt like an idiot watching this film. Also...Burnat spends way too much time on his kids. I will not even get into details about their names or back stories because trust me..you will hear plenty about those things in the film.
The film also doesn't go beyond the whole cliche of rightful land ownership in the protests. There is no substance to the scenes with the protests and it ends up being excruciating to watch scene after scene of this. Perhaps Burnat did his job in this way...wanting to make the film painful to watch but I hardly doubt he was going for excruciating. Finally...the fact that the cameras were broken by the same thing (which I choose not to reveal just in case some of my readers are still intrigued by this film) makes the broken cameras aspect of the film lack any real motive.
With all this out in the open...all I have to say is that it's your choice. You can watch this film whose subject matter is way past its due date or you can watch the news. Personally..I would go with the news....it will be more up to date and significantly less boring.
(0 out of 5 Stars, The film is Not Rated)
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