Emotional scars, repression, trauma and guilt: these symptoms are the fate not only of male Israeli combat soldiers, but of women as well. To See If I’m Smiling (Best Documentary, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Haifa International Film Festival) profiles six women former soldiers who performed their compulsory army service in the occupied territories, and reveals the aftereffects that have lingered for years. The traumatic experiences they carry with them are memories they would rather erase. Director Tamar Yarom, who served in the occupied territories during the late 1980s, presents strong and frank testimonials, and exposes another dark side of the occupation—this time a feminine side. The psychological and emotional transformation these soldiers underwent is both unsettling and riveting; the dulling of sensitivity and humaneness seems to be the only way the women could deal with and be integrated into the surrounding (masculine) machinery of war and defense.

—Pnina Halfon Lang

Presented with Facing the Wind

Co-presented by Jewish Community Center of the East Bay and Jewish Voice for Peace – South Bay