Bet Herut

Bet Herut is a 2004 documentary made by Fulbright recipient Eran Preis about the unraveling of Beit Herut, an Israel moshav. Preis grew up in Beit Herut but moved to America as soon as he was old enough to live on his own. He was in America when Beit Herut's founder, Nachi Ariel, was involved in a murder suicide that devastated the community. With a sense of attachment to Ariel - who had once been a paternal authority figure to him - Preis returns to the place of his childhood to reconsile his past and evaluate Beit Herut's slow deterioration. In its beginning, Beit Herut embodied the idealism it strove for. A film, made when the commune started, shows strong able-bodied men happily working the fields in the warm sun. ￢ﾀﾜEverybody was...