In 1982, Ari Folman was a nineteen-year-old infantry soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In 2006, he meets with a friend from his army service period, who tells him of the nightmares connected to his experiences from the Lebanon War. Folman is surprised to find that he remembers nothing from that period. Later that night he has a vision from the night of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the reality of which he is unable to clearly recall. In his memory, he and his soldier comrades are bathing at night by the seaside in Beirut under the light of flares descending over the city.
Staff Sgt. Raphael "Gingy" Moked is ordered by his company commander, Captain Shamgar, to retrieve Sergio Constanza, a deserter from reserve service. On his way he meets his girlfriend Yaeli and offers to talk to her father, Victor Hasson, to get a blessing for their relationship. Hasson gives his blessing, believing that Moked came for his older daughter Shifra, but throws him out of the house after finding out this was not so. Yaeli does not wish to part from Moked, and sneaks into a suitcase in his jeep. Meanwhile, Constanza tricks several other gamblers into losing thousands of dollars, which he intends to use to repay his debt to Mr. Hasson. The gamblers find out about the plot however, which leaves Sergio with no choice but to run away to the army with Moked.
Three very different brothers – Alon (34), a no-nonsense Israeli Army officer; Benni (30), a brilliant electrician; and Idan (22), a wimpy field trip guide – navigate obstacles in an attempt to bury their beloved grandmother in the cemetery of her kibbutz, the fictional Asisim. Because Alon has a secret security operation set for that same day, they have to work on a tight schedule, so he plans it like a military operation (hence the title). A series of mistakes and mishaps complicate things.
There are five cameras — each with its own story. When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born in 2005, self-taught cameraman Emad Burnat, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. At the same time in his village of Bil’in, the Israelis begin bulldozing village olive groves to build a barrier to separate Bil'in from the Jewish Settlement Modi'in Illit. The barrier's route cuts off 60% of Bil'in farmland and the villagers resist this seizure of more of their land by the settlers.
Shlomo, an Ethiopian boy, is placed by his Christian mother with an Ethiopian Jewish woman whose child has died. This woman, who will become his adoptive mother, is about to be airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984. His birth mother, who hopes for a better life for him, tells him “Go, live, and become,” as he leaves her to board the plane. The film tells of his growing up in Israel and how he deals with the secrets he carries: not being Jewish and having left his birth mother.
Checkpoint is shot in cinéma vérité style with no narration and very little context. Shamir himself is absent from the film except for one scene in which a border guard asks him to try to make him "look good," and Shamir asks how he should do that.
A lunatic with a digging compulsion (Blaumilch) escapes from an asylum, steals a jackhammer and proceeds to open up a main street and traffic artery in Tel Aviv (Allenby Street). Rather than question his actions, the police, as well as city officials, assume he is operating under the municipality’s orders and aid him as much as they can. Complaints from local residents, whose lives become a living hell due to the noise and traffic jams, lead to infighting amongst city departments. To speed up the work, so that it would be completed before the start of the municipal elections, the city sends armies of construction workers and heavy equipment to help the lone compressor, turning a mere annoyance into a full blown disaster.
Le 11 juin 1967, la guerre des Six jours est terminée et le cessez-le-feu ne fait que commencer. Gassan et Haled, deux soldats égyptiens, n'ont qu'un seul souhait : traverser le désert du Sinaï et atteindre en toute sécurité le canal de Suez. C'est ainsi que commence une saga comique, presque surréaliste, au cours de laquelle ils rencontrent divers groupes de personnes à travers le désert, y compris des soldats israéliens en patrouille et un journaliste arrogant.
Le film raconte les amours contrariées entre Roy, un jeune avocat israélien, et Nimer, un Palestinien qui étudie la psychologie un jour par semaine à Tel Aviv, ce qu’il voit au départ comme un tremplin pour les États-Unis. Le frère de Nimer, Nabil, est un activiste violent et homophobe qui stocke des armes dans la maison familiale à Ramallah.