The Wanted 18

Would an army really go looking for cows it believed were enemies of the state? It sounds absurd, but this was the reality in Palestine in the late 1980s. The Wanted 18 (2014) packages this snippet of history in a vibrant film that switches smoothly from heartwarming and comical to profoundly sad.

Filmmaker Amer Shomali was six years old when the First Intifada began in 1987. His community on the occupied West Bank had had enough of being oppressed and wanted independence from Israel. So the inhabitants of Beit Sahour village jumped at the opportunity when they got the chance to buy 18 cows, because it meant they could boycott Israeli milk. It was the first step on the road to self-sufficiency, but the oppressor was having none of it.

A cheerful stop-motion animation gets us better acquainted with a herd of cows as part of the fluid mix of archive material, interviews, and reconstructions that make up The Wanted 18. The energetic storytelling draws the viewer into this inspiring tale of peaceful resistance, and of hope and fellowship in impossible times.