Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 – Sweden

The film is the definitive cinematic account of the background to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through unique and immersive footage, long buried in the vaults of Sveriges Television’s archives. From the director of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 and Concerning Violence.

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 is an impressive and ambitious archive project that highlights how Sweden’s public service broadcaster has portrayed one of the most complex and long-lasting conflicts of our time. Göran Hugo Olsson’s restrained mastery of form opens a cinematic window onto a very different media era – a time when the public service broadcaster had a monopoly on the broadcast of moving images of the world and thus also a special responsibility for how this world was presented to the audience.

The film is therefore not only a story about the Middle East, but also a media-historical reflection on Swedish television journalism’s approach to objectivity and materiality. The film’s gently exploratory approach reveals how television aesthetics, media ethics, and political realities change over time – and how journalism attempts to navigate this shifting landscape. 

With immense historical scope, consistent editing, and a deep contemporary seriousness, the film tells a story about how people in Sweden have viewed a conflict that has long been present in their living rooms, but whose interpretive frameworks have constantly been in flux. Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 is a film that gives perspective on a perspective.

Göran Hugo Olsson is a film director and producer, and one of the founders of the production company Story. Olsson was educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and is one of Sweden’s leading filmmakers internationally. His first cinema release Fuck You, Fuck You Very Much (1998) is a Swedish classic. The feature documentary The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) became a huge hit at festivals, in theatres, and on television screens worldwide. It was followed by Concerning Violence (Om våld, 2014), narrated by Ms Lauryn Hill, which premiered at Sundance and the Berlinale to critical acclaim. He directed Fonko (2016) and then That Summer(Den sommaren, 2017) which were screened both at festivals and on television worldwide. His latest feature Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 premiered in Venice and is screening at major festivals around the world. 

Tobias Janson is a producer and CEO of Story, a leading Swedish documentary production company with offices in Stockholm and Gothenburg. His filmography includes award-winning and broadly critically acclaimed documentaries such as Hypermoon (Grand Prix, Festival des Films Européens), A House Made of Splinters (Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary), That Summer (Telluride / Belinale), Concerning Violence (Sundance World competition and Berlinale Cinema Fairbindet Award winner, Best Swedish Documentary Award), Belleville Baby (Berlinale premiere and Best Swedish Documentary Award winner), and The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Sundance World Editing Award winner and Berlinale premiere 2011). Janson was the Swedish nominee for the 2024 Nordic Documentary Producer Award.

Main director: Göran Hugo Olsson
Main writer: Göran Hugo Olsson
Main producer: Tobias Janson
Production company: Story AB
Distribution company: Folkets Bio
Original title: Israel Palestina på svensk tv 1958–1989
International title: Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
National premiere: 04.10.24
Total length in minutes: 210