ABSTRACT
The origins of Israeli cinema are found in the films of local documentary makers whose main concern was in depicting the early history of the Zionist movement in Palestine. Owing to the economic dependence of the pioneer filmmakers on Zionist organizations, and to their own ideological enthu-siasm, these early documentaries are in essence propaganda works in the spirit of social-realist films produced at the time in the USSR, showing proud Jewish pioneers working the land.
