A+DFF: Rule of Stone

Dir. Danae Elon
2024, Canada, 84 minutes
Arabic, English and Hebrew with English subtitles
Rated 18A (Unrated)

A documentary film examining the power of architecture and the role it has played— aesthetically, ideologically and strategically—in sharping modern Jerusalem. Following the 1967 war, Israel took control of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, home to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. In the years that followed, the city was declared the country’s united capital; The goal became to make a re-division of the city materially impossible.

Architecture and stone became tools in physical transformations of the city. At the centre of the story is the narrative of Jerusalem Stone, a material decreed by law to give the city its aesthetic quality, used for buildings throughout the city since the British Mandate period. The film takes the viewer on a journey to see how design and the perception of beauty influenced the modern development and identity of the city. Rule of Stone reflects how design, material and policy intersect in one of the world’s most historically and politically complex places.

Generously sponsored by Exchange District BIZ