Film Synopsis

The documentary Degrees of Incarceration introduces viewers to a diverse group of Palestinians – mothers, teenagers, children, community leaders – who strive to support each other in the enduring shadow of political prison. Approximately 8,000 Palestinians, including more than 300 children under the age of 18, are currently in Israeli prisons for security reasons; yet this issue rarely receives the political or humanitarian attention many Palestinians believe it deserves.

This film explores the effects of political imprisonment on the Palestinian community of Aida Refugee Camp, in Bethlehem. Through observational footage and interviews filmed over the course of six years, the documentary traces how a group of youth are imprisoned for protesting against the building of the separation wall around their refugee camp, and addresses how imprisonment changes their lives after their release. Scenes of the everyday ways families cope reveal the emotional intensity of this situation. A mother whose sixteen-year-old is in detention voices vociferous support for him until she is overcome with grief over the arrest. Elderly parents awake in the middle of the night to make an arduous journey into Israel to visit their long-imprisoned son.

Yet, this is not centrally a story of Palestinian suffering. A youth organization led by former prisoners produces a play to teach teenagers how to handle interrogation. It also channels youths’ nationalist commitment into activities that will support their community, but diminish their risk of arrest. Aging parents and youth alike take part in processions in solidarity with prisoners on a hunger strike. A children’s dance troupe – several of whose members have had family members in prison – performs at a mother’s otherwise somber commemoration of her son’s twenty years in prison. Two former prisoners, one man and one woman, discuss how they maintained their dignity while in prison. In these ways, the film reveals how community members, old and young, respond with creativity and determination to attend to the social and political toll imprisonment takes on them all.