How One Short Film Gives Israel’s Invisible Bedouin a Voice 

CoPro executive director Pnina Halfon Lang: “At a time when the Israeli film industry is facing boycotts and global challenges, it is important for us to give creators the tools to turn their art into a force of influence” 

By Maayan Hoffman/The Media Line 

What if films could do more than entertain? What if they could raise awareness and inspire social change? 

That’s the mission behind CoPro – the Israeli Content Marketing Foundation – and its newly launched Impact Lab in the western Negev, a region devastated by the Oct. 7 terror attack. 

“Cinema has the power to be much more than a story or an entertainment product; it can serve as a tool for real social change,” Pnina Halfon Lang, the foundation’s executive director, told The Media Line. “Today, creators have both the opportunity and the responsibility to translate moments of on-screen empathy into influence over decision-makers and action on the ground.” 

In other words, films can serve as catalysts for social transformation and as a creative way to give back to society. 

That message was vividly brought to life this week with the pre-premiere of Jamila’s Loop at the South Film Festival in the Negev, where the film was produced. The 12-minute black-and-white animated short shines a light on the voiceless, invisible, and stateless Bedouin community, inviting viewers to confront Israel’s complex social realities and sparking a conversation about repair and recognition. 

Created by filmmakers Idan Levy and Gili Tzlik, both residents of the Gaza Envelope, the film tells the story of a Bedouin girl who lives in Israel but, in the state’s eyes, does not officially exist. She is one of roughly 3,000 stateless Bedouins in Israel, people living in legal and social limbo, largely unnoticed. 

Through striking animation and emotional storytelling, Jamila’s Loop explores what it means to belong in a place that denies your existence. The film amplifies voices that are rarely heard and challenges audiences to rethink identity, empathy, and human rights through the power of cinema. 

Levy said he and his co-director began exploring the issue of stateless Bedouins long before the Hamas attack. 

“We started to investigate,” Levy recalled. “Somebody told us that there is a group of people that don’t have any ID, that are under the radar. So we tried to reach them … We found a community less than 100 kilometers from Tel Aviv that is living, that exists, but nobody knows that they exist, and they can’t show any proof of their existence – only their physical bodies.” 

For Levy, the discovery was “shocking.” He and Tzlik gradually built trust with community members, seeking to understand their daily lives and experiences. But filming them proved impossible. 

“They were afraid,” Levy said. “They could not even be photographed.” 

That led the filmmakers to choose animation. 

“We realized animation would allow us to represent their story without revealing who they are,” he explained. 

The result is a simple yet striking style — hand-drawn, pencil-like sketches that convey both fragility and strength. Even the voice in the film, that of a Bedouin girl, is not Jamila’s own, for fear of recognition. 

“The story is Jamila’s story, the story of one person, but her story is much wider,” Levy added. “It is the story of a community, of a people, all in the same situation.” 

He said the community is truly “caught in a loop,” hence the film’s name. It’s a vicious cycle that feels impossible to escape. Without identification, these individuals are unable to open bank accounts, attend school, or access health care. 

“Jamila is working. She wants to be a teacher. Her dream is to return to her village and teach math to young Bedouin children. But she can’t learn. She can’t learn or do any degree,” Levy told The Media Line. “Without an ID number, without money, without the option to be represented by somebody like a lawyer … she can’t go out of her village because if someone will arrest her and will ask her, can you give us your ID, then she will say, I don’t have any ID so they will take her and they will keep her until someone will come and say I know her and you can release her. But no one can come and say, let her go.” 

For more than a decade, Jamila has been trying to obtain an ID card, but each attempt ends the same way. When she applies, officials cannot process her paperwork because she doesn’t already have an ID. 

The system, Levy said, “cannot understand her.” 

Jamila’s story, he emphasized, is not only about one woman but about a human being denied fundamental rights. She represents the third generation of stateless people in her family. 

“If she could change her life, it would also change the lives of her parents, grandparents, and others in the same situation,” Levy said. 

Tzlik added that Jamila is “motivated and she’s really brave.” 

Yet, she continues to work alongside her mother, grandmother, and sister in a potato factory, where they are paid in cash under the table. 

“It’s really, really sad,” Tzlik told The Media Line. “Jamila is a smart, brilliant young woman.” 

“We understood that this is really a person who wants to change something in her life,” Levy noted. “For us, it was very inspiring.” 

The filmmakers also learned that this phenomenon is not unique to Israel. 

“There are millions of stateless people around the world,” Levy said. “But we live in Israel, and we want these people to have the opportunity to be citizens like everyone else.” 

Jamila’s Loop is part of CoPro’s “Shorts for Change” lab, produced in partnership with the Western Negev Regional Authority Cluster and the Negev Foundation. The initiative promotes short films by creators from the western Negev that aim to generate social impact, spark public discourse, and influence policymakers. 

While Jamila’s Loop focuses on the stateless Bedouin community, other films from the lab address the trauma of Oct. 7 and its aftermath. 

CoPro has a history of producing films that make a difference. One previous project, In the Name of the Father, led to the end of illegal child marriages for the first time in 40 years and prompted the creation of an interministerial committee at the Ministry of Welfare. 

Participants in the lab receive hands-on training in advocacy, strategic partnerships, and collaboration with government ministries, NGOs, and public institutions, learning how to leverage art as a tool for impact and repair. 

“At a time when the Israeli film industry is facing boycotts and global challenges, it is important for us to give creators the tools to turn their art into a force of influence,” Halfon Lang concluded. “Jamila’s Loop is talking about stateless Bedouin people, and we believe, together with the filmmakers, that we can create some kind of a change in these people’s lives and, of course, raise awareness about their situation.”