Icarus Films: Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

In ISRAEL PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989, filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson (The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975) masterfully weaves together some of this footage, telling the story of the rise of the Israeli state and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination — as seen by Swedish media.

For the first decade, SVT coverage is mostly positive. There is a sense of affinity for Israel’s collective efforts in agriculture, housing, medicine, and what is then openly called colonization. But over time the Palestinians move from the sidelines to center stage. There is hope, there is confusion, there is disillusionment and despair.

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ISRAEL PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989 features interviews with key political and military figures, and highlights historic events like the Six Day War, the 1972 Munich Olympic attack, the first Intifada, and the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. But the film also shares more intimate, rarely seen stories. We meet Palestinian resistance fighters training in the desert, a Bedouin Israeli with torn allegiances, idealistic Swedish peacekeepers, and West Bank journalists trying to put out their paper under strict censorship.

Olsson draws on material from a variety of programs — interview shows, investigative reportage, news stories, magazine-style pieces and even children’s programming. The result is an illuminating look at a changing media landscape and the framing of one of the most significant and intractable conflicts of our times.

“Critics' Pick! An excellent documentary... This sprawling, continually engrossing assemblage from Göran Hugo Olsson (THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE) is built entirely from material shown on Swedish public television. Its subject is not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also how the news was mediated for Swedish viewers by a dominant broadcaster with a mandate for impartiality.” —The New York Times

“Deserves to be seen. Beyond hours and hours of fascinating footage.” —Screen Slate

“Invaluable. [An] illuminating, even-handed magnum opus…Exhaustive in its detail and balanced in its spread of voices.” —Screen Daily

“An enlightening, overwhelming document.” —Video Librarian

“Honest and electrifying... Films rarely change the world on this scale, yet they can often be empathy machines, and this is one of the most powerful ones of the year.” —Spectrum Culture

“All too timely for the West today.” —BFI London Film Festival

"There is no understanding 2025 without understanding what happened in 1965 and 1985... Olsson has produced one of the most complete cinematic documents about a political conflict in recent memory." —Truthdig

“Remarkable... an essential documentation of the Palestinian struggle.” —In Review Online