A Tangle in Stone
Documentary Film
An independent a television-hour documentary exploring the religious history of the Old City of Jerusalem, and the potentially disastrous ramifications of the push to rebuild the Jewish Temple on the site of the Dome of the Rock mosque.
Format
Digital Documentary Film, 52 minutes
Production
Produced, written and directed by Readymade Productions’ Christopher Faull and produced in association with the Australian Film Commission. Distributed internationally by Beyond Films, A Tangle in Stone has sold to television and cable worldwide.
Isolated from modern Jerusalem by its ancient stone walls, the Old City is a maze of narrow walkways, crammed with Arab markets and religious sites, tourists and pilgrims. Its inhabitants adhere to a tangle of different beliefs. Through the eyes of the filmmaker we meet right-wing religious Jews and angry Palestinians, a popular self-proclaimed Messiah, a wise old man and a middle aged moderate. They talk of their experiences, their beliefs, their dreams and their fears. From these encounters it emerges that currently brewing in the holy city is a conflict of biblical proportions.
Mount Moriah is the site of the Dome of the Rock mosque. Its golden cupola dominates the landscape of the Old City. It is also the original site of the Jewish Second Temple. Prophesy upholds the Messiah will not reveal himself until a Third Temple is built, and Judaic law dictates it must be built on the site where the Dome of the Rock now stands. Religious Jews believe the coming of the Messiah is imminent; many believe he already walks the earth. Two giant holy buildings. One proposed, one already standing. They can’t both exist on the same site.
A Tangle in Stone explores the complex motivations which drive the people on a seemingly inevitable collision course over Mount Moriah.
The Dome of the Rock adorns Islam’s holiest site after Mecca and Medina. Israel sits nervously amidst some twenty-three Arab nations, the vast majority of whom are Moslem. Any threat to the security of the Mosque could push an already explosive situation to breaking point.