Maxim Sansour

Familiar Phantoms is an experimental documentary short film about memory, history and trauma.

As Abu Laila is forced to leave his job as a judge and become a cab driver, he faces a hectic challenge when he's told by his wife to bring a gift and a cake for their daughter's seventh birthday, which proves to be a task more complicated than he expected.

Since the war in Gaza and the expanding occupation of the West Bank, a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians feels more distant than ever. In this three-part series, the reporter Matthew Cassel travels along the 1949 Armistice border, or ‘Green Line’, once seen as the best hope for a resolution. He meets Palestinians and Israelis living just kilometres apart, but shaped by vastly different realities.