Censored Voices

BBC STORYVILLE LAST NIGHT - CENSORED VOICES The impact of Israel's 1967 Six Day War starkly told in its protagonists' original words

The impact of Israel's 1967 Six Day War starkly told in its protagonists' original words

Israeli director Mor Loushy's documentary Censored Voices grapples with the weight of history. It draws on interviews taken by the future writer Amos Oz with Israeli soldiers immediately after the end of the Six Day War in 1967 which were heavily censored at the time by the Israeli army, with only around 30% of the resulting material subsequently published in a book by Oz’s colleague Avraham Shapira, The Seventh Day.

Crossing Jerusalem, Park Theatre

Revival of Julia Pascal’s 2003 play about the intifada is powerful, but no easy ride

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been very prominent in the news recently, but that doesn’t mean that it has gone away. As Julia Pascal’s 2003 play reminds us, religious and cultural tensions can go deep. Very deep. At the centre of her intense story, which is set over about 24 hours during the second intifada, is Jerusalem, a divided city, a contested territory, a place which is dangerous to cross. As bombs explode in cafés and on buses, the events of the drama illustrate the tight embrace of the personal and the political.

Matan Porat, Wigmore Hall

Young Israeli pianist aims big, with intelligence to spare, in Ligeti, Rameau and Schubert

From now until 12 September, when Wigmore darling Iestyn Davies returns to open the new season, the biggest names in instrumental music are to be heard in the biggest venue, the Albert Hall. With all eyes and ears turned by maximum publicity towards the Proms, folk may have forgotten that the Wigmore Hall concerts were ongoing until last night.

Hostages, BBC Four

HOSTAGES, BBC FOUR Tension runs high in Israeli original of television drama we know already

Tension runs high in Israeli original of television drama we know already

Hostages certainly whips along. We’re straight into conflict from the very start of the first episode, except it soon transpires that the real action will be taking place elsewhere. And it’ll be tighter, more excruciating than the bash-down-the-door atmosphere of the opening scene, which serves to introduce us to Adam Rubin (Jonah Lotan), a top operator in Israeli counter-terrorism who’s on his last day of service and concluding his final mission successfully.

Dancing in Jaffa

DANCING IN JAFFA Rumba and tango engage with Israeli-Palestinian tensions in moving documentary

Rumba and tango engage with Israeli-Palestinian tensions in moving documentary

Your initial impressions of Hilla Medalia’s Dancing in Jaffa may be influenced by whether you go into it knowing anything about its central character, Pierre Dulaine. His is a name that needs no introduction to anyone familiar with the world of ballroom dancing: he has been a world star in that field for decades, who together with his dancing partner, Yvonne Marceau, set up the American Ballroom Theatre in New York in 1984.

Touched by Auschwitz, BBC Two

TOUCHED BY AUSCHWITZ Laurence Rees allows Auschwitz survivors full reflection

Powerful documentary by Laurence Rees allows Auschwitz survivors full reflection

There’s been a pronounced sense of finality at this year’s 70th anniversary commemoration of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz. No closure, of course, but an awareness that the ranks of survivors are diminishing, and that soon their first-person testimonials will disappear into a past.

The Eichmann Show, BBC Two

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY Not just a historic war crimes trial, but an international TV event - 'The Eichmann Show'

Not just a historic war crimes trial, but also an international TV event

Part of a series of programmes marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, The Eichmann Show was a 90-minute account of how the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the SS's most enthusiastic engineers of the Holocaust, became "the world's first ever global documentary series". The key men in making this happen were TV producer Milton Fruchtman and renowned documentary director Leo Hurwitz, the latter a victim of McCarthy-era blacklisting in the USA.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS Ridley Scott's Biblical epic can't decide whether to be ancient or modern

Ridley Scott's Biblical epic can't decide whether to be ancient or modern

I wish Mel Brooks had directed this, but instead we've got the sort of stodgy techno-epic that has become all too common from the auteur-ial hand of Ridley Scott. Ridley's 150-minute rehashing of the Biblical story of Moses is often a feast for the eyes (especially in 3D), with its vast Egyptian panoramas and stunningly mounted action sequences, but the characters are largely cardboard, the dialogue is dire and a lot of very good actors are given nothing of any consequence to do. Did somebody mention Kingdom of Heaven?

The Green Prince

THE GREEN PRINCE The Israeli-Palestinian struggle explored through a single complex relationship

The Israeli-Palestinian struggle explored through a single complex relationship

Finding a clear narrative among the deadly uncertainties of the long-lasting stand-off between Israel and Palestine is a challenge. Israeli documentarist Nadav Schirman, drawing on a real-life story, has honed The Green Prince down into a bare story of the ongoing contact between Gonen Ben Yitzhak, an officer of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service, and Mosab Hassan Yousef, a young man from the very centre of the Palestinian leadership who becomes his agent.

The Honourable Woman, Series Finale, BBC Two

THE HONOURABLE WOMAN, SERIES FINALE, BBC TWO Final episode of Hugo Blick's absorbing thriller avoids neat conclusions

Final episode of Hugo Blick's absorbing thriller avoids neat conclusions

In the current political climate, it would have been grotesquely inappropriate to conclude even the most fictionalised account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with any kind of neat resolution. But even if Hugo Blick’s absorbing thriller had ever dealt in such things, the carefully orchestrated dual-location bloodbath at the climax of its penultimate episode was all the hint one needed that a happy ending was never on the cards.