Description d'un combat

Third Side of the Coin
Directed byChris Marker
Written byChris Marker
Produced byAndré Valio-Cavaglione


Lia van Leer

Wim Van Leer
Narrated byJean Vilar (French version)
Yaakov Malkin (Hebrew version)
Howard Vernon (German version)
CinematographyGhislain Cloquet
Edited byEva Zora
Release date
  • 1960 (1960)
Running time
57 minutes
CountryIsrael
LanguagesHebrew, French, English, German

Third Side of the Coin (French: "Description d'un Combat") is a 1960 French documentary film directed by Chris Marker focused on Israeli society in the late 1950s, about 12 years after the state's founding.[1] The film won the Golden Bear at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival in 1961.

The film documents everyday life, from kibbutz socialism to bustling city streets, as well as reflecting on social inequality, ethnic tensions, and the ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict.[2][3]

In 2025, more than one thousand photographs taken by Marker during filming were found by Israel Museum staff at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. The Israel Museum staff turned the photographs into an exhibit, titled "Chris Marker: The Lost Photographs of Israel."[4]

Marker himself tried to hinder screenings and distribution of the film,[5] for reasons that later commentators assumed were not only artistic but political,[6] the director feeling, according to them, that the evolution of the country was far from being what he had expected.[7]

References

  1. ^ Gombeaud, Adrien (April 2017). "Description d'un combat & description d'un souvenir". Positif. No. 674.
  2. ^ Riba, Naama (5 May 2025). "The Never-before-seen Photos of Young Israel That Turned Out to Be Prophetic". Haaretz. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  3. ^ "Reprise : Chris Marker face à l'utopie et aux défis d'Israël" (in French). 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
  4. ^ Barr, Neria (11 May 2025). "A poetic lens on Israel's past". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  5. ^ Brarda, Nicola (2017-02-21). "Description d'un combat". Critikat (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-15.
  6. ^ "Description d'un combat". DVDClassik.com (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-15.
  7. ^ Ariel Schweitzer, "Le film caché de Chris Marker", Les Cahiers du cinéma, October 2013 (n° 693, p. 59),