24h Jerusalem

In Jerusalem, every stone is history and every story leads back through the centuries. The Holy City is the cradle of the three great monotheistic religions and the spiritual center for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world every year. But often overlooked by tourists: Jerusalem is contested, the political front lines run right through the city. For Israel it is the indivisible capital, for the Palestinians an occupied city - and for Europeans a distant world, difficult to grasp in its complexity. 24h Jerusalem tells the story of the Holy City through the eyes of the people who live in it and who are caught up in its contradictions: Jews, Muslims and Christians, Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners, women and men, immigrants and long-established residents, believers and atheists, night owls and early risers. 70 film teams accompanied around 90 protagonists with the most diverse life stories at work and in their free time, in cramped apartments and spacious villas, in temples, mosques and churches, in Israeli settlements and Palestinian refugee camps. Jerusalem attracts many people; many never let go of the city. The city is full of history and stories, and full of contrasts. Many tensions of the present have their roots far back in history. "24 Hours of Jerusalem" follows the daily routine of ordinary people of this special city on an ordinary working day in April of 2013. "24h Jerusalem" tells the story of the Holy City through the eyes of the people who live in it and who are caught up in its contradictions: Jews, Muslims and Christians, Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners, women and men, immigrants and old-timers, believers and atheists, night owls and early risers. 70 film crews accompanied around 90 protagonists with the most diverse life stories at work and in their free time, in cramped apartments and spacious mansions, in temples, mosques and churches, in Israeli settlements and Palestinian refugee camps. SEQUENCE 1: An ordinary working day in Jerusalem, April 2013, six in the morning. For the past 10 years, the city has been surrounded by a wall that is up to 8 meters high in some places. Those who work in Jerusalem but live beyond the wall already have an arduous journey at this early hour. Many commuters to the city are Palestinians who are not allowed to take up residence inside Jerusalem. Every day they spend a lot of time in the checkpoint queues. In the Old City, at this early hour, it is mainly the garbage collectors who are out. A priest who plays the organ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre begins his day with a solitary mass celebration. Some Jewish pilgrims are already on their way to the Wailing Wall at this early hour. The Old City of Jerusalem is home to holy sites of all three monotheistic world religions - Jews, Christians and Muslims. Constanze Klatt from Thuringia met Jamal while studying in Spain. Now they live as a German-Palestinian couple in an Arab neighborhood inside the wall of Jerusalem. Like every morning, Jamal and their little daughter find it difficult to get up early. Midwife Yana Glazer's night shift is coming to an end. She administers another contraceptive to a pregnant woman whose child is finally to be born after 16 hours in the maternity ward.