Under a Blue Sun

How, in the 1980s, Rambo III was produced in collaboration with the Israeli military in the Naqab desert in Israel-Palestine. Bashir, who worked as a special effects man on Rambo III, returns today to the desert, and to his lost ancestral lands.

Transforming the Negev Desert into an ersatz Afghanistan required sleights of hand reminiscent of many others: colonising a territory involves as much rewriting history as modifying its appearance, to transform it into the décor of new scenes. A man’s account of the Israeli army’s collaboration on the shoot of Rambo III reveals one aspect of the conflict: the importance of conquering imaginaries, which renders the entertainment industry a desirable ally for any military power. The simulated explosions in the film echo the smoke and mirrors created by the images being circulated. For many years, Bashir has been depicting his people’s history with the desert by transposing memories into paintings. In the film, his mode of participating in an inevitable war of images encounters other modes: without Hollywood’s resources, an association arms the Bedouin communities with cameras so they can document the destruction of unrecognised villages. Sometimes, you also have to disappear to exist, like these Palestinians who conceal their houses under corrugated iron to escape Israeli eyes. In an interview, Stallone explains, with a touch of cynicism, that the terrorist attacks launched during the shoot were useful for the film as they fuelled an uneasy atmosphere. Daniel Mann replies to the actor and producer with missives recalling the ideological weight of each image and the huge responsibility that creating them involves.

Olivia Cooper-Hadjian