A first-person documentary feature by Orly Yadin
LAND explores how national identity is constructed—and how it changes when the stories we inherit are questioned.
Born into a family of influential Zionist thinkers and archaeologists whose work helped shape the ideology of early Israel, the filmmaker sets out to examine the foundations of the worldview that defined her upbringing.
The film unfolds as a metaphorical archaeological excavation: digging through layers of family history, ideology, and memory. Archival home movies, photographs, and newsreels intersect with present-day conversations with Israelis and Palestinians. Animated sequences bring imagined encounters with the filmmaker’s ancestors to life, allowing the past to speak directly to the present.
As the excavation deepens, the film reveals the blind spots embedded in the national narrative that shaped an entire generation. LAND ultimately becomes both a personal reckoning and a broader reflection on how identities—personal and national—are formed, sustained, and transformed.
LAND is both a personal reckoning and a broader reflection on how national identities are built—and how they can change when we begin to see what was once invisible.
PRODUCTION
Producer/Director/Writer – Orly Yadin
Editor/Camera/Sound – Nora Jacobson
Original Score – Uri Agnon
Character Animator – Hayley Morris
Lip-Sync animator/compositor – Cody Millett
Motion Graphics – Ryan Dunleavy
FEATURING IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Rafi Greenberg
Nurit Peled-Elhanan
Noga Kadman
Nachman Ben-Yehuda
Mousa Ishaq
ANCESTOR VOICES
Marianne DiMascio
Eric St. John
Wayne Tetrick
Baa Baa Blacksheep song
performed by
Lorelei Bernatt Hughes
MUSICIANS
Uri Agnon
Omri Kochavi
Alice Purton
Olly Sellwood
Narration Recordist
Joe Egan
Assistant Sound Recordist
Meghan O’Rourke
Additional camera
Dan Higgins
Eleanor Lanahan
Orly Yadin
POST PRODUCTION
Sound Editor
Max Johnson
Color Grader
Art Bell
Music Mixer
Dan Erlich
Additional sound work
Joe Egan
Charles Geoghegan
Studio facilities
Egan Media
Media Factory
Strongroom Ltd.
Film/Video Transfers
The Edit Store
VideoSyncracies
ARCHIVAL SOURCES
BibleWalks.com
British Pathé
Central Zionist Archive
Natasha Dubinski
Oren Feld
Footage Farm Ltd.
Free Jerusalem
Herzliya Studios
Israel Film Archive/
Jerusalem Cinematheque/
State Archive
Israfilm Collection / Sadot North
ITN
Noga Kadman – Zochrot
Library of Congress
NBC
PalestineRemembered.com
Reuters Screenocean
Ronni Ruppin
Spielberg Jewish Film Archive
tv.social.org.il
WYSInfo.com
Ruppin/Yadin Family home movies
Ibrahim Zarour
Morning Song
written by Natan Alterman,
performed by Effi Netzer Singers
FILMING LOCATIONS
Israel, Palestine, USA