The Zoo (2005)

Animals...Adventure...Action!!! One-man documentary team Hayden Campbell shows the daily scramble of life in the town of Qalqiliya (Kalkilya) through the eyes of the West Bank and Gaza's one and only zookeeper, Dr. Sami Khader. Just 15 kilometres from Tel Aviv, Qalqiliya is completely fenced off from the rest of the world by Israel's security wall. Like the town itself, the Zoo has been hit hard by the conflict. Images of the devastated zoo made international television news and Dr Sami's determination to keep the park open gave him the fleeting attention of the world media. To get behind the headlines Campbell accompanies the voluble and entertaining Dr Sami on a mission to rescue two baboons from a run-down facility in Nablus. The degree of bureaucracy and checkpoint subterfuge entailed turns an already bizarrely symbolic task into a flabbergasting exercise in absurdity.