The Berakah Project

If you haven’t seen Gary Cohen’s documentary Judah and Mohammed, you should track it down somewhere and watch it. It gets under the skin of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and after an hour of following two young men - one Israeli Jew, one Palestinian - it gets under the viewers skin as well. What made it especially powerful for me was that you are actually watching Judah and Mohammed grow and change over a period of 18 months, without any sermonising by the documentary makers. It’s this human story that really brings home the futility of the conflict, and the way it distorts people’s lives on both sides.

This was a good excuse to write something about the documentary, since I wasn’t blogging at the time it was screened. However I should also say that Gary is hosting the launch party for The Berakah Project, a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim musicians on 27th November at St Paul’s Church on Bedford Street in Covent Garden. Too often, these sorts of project turn into a worthy muddle, but the music clips on their site talk of a dynamic blend of different styles with firm roots in the music of the middle east; so head along and enjoy.