Director Ido Sela returns to Israel on a family visit after spending

several years living in California. The meeting with his mother,

a residend and member of Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi, offers an

intimate glimpse of the loneliness of the founding generation.

In addition to carrying the burden of their memories as Holocaust

survivors who fled Europe on the Eve of World War II, the

members also confront the threats of the present. An unresolved

outburst of violence at the kibbutz gate overshadows the

friendship that existed between the kibbutz and the neighboring

Bedouin village, Kfar Tuba. The 50''s anniversary celebrations

reminiscences however, one of the class mate is missing. The director sets out to the

Gaza Strip to find her at her home, at the settlement of Atzmona.

The journey to Gush Katif, only weeks before its evacuation,

brings to the surface the tensions of Israeli reality - together

with tormenting memories from the First Intifada.

“Bekummernis” (German for sadness, distress) is a film that

offers a personal cinematic summing up of encounters in an

enchanted childhood landscape transformed into a scene of a

crime - and maybe also a slumbering volcano.