Through a conversation with her Jewish-Israeli grandparents about a large mirror placed in their home, a filmmaker explores how personal and collective history are written and negotiated, and what cannot be named.
At the heart of the film is a large, beautifully framed mirror, lovingly referred to by the family as the “Arabic mirror.” It comes from Zarnuqa, a neighboring Palestinian village depopulated during the 1948 war. While her grandfather Yossi fondly remembers playing there as a child, the question of how the mirror came into the family’s home remains wrapped in silence. Was it bought? Found? Or taken? As the filmmaker gently persists, her grandparents struggle to reconcile their self-image—”We’re not that kind of people”—with the historical realities of 1948. Mirror Image transforms an intimate family conversation into a profound reflection on collective silence, memory, and the tension between familial love and historical accountability.
CAST
Rivka and Yossef (Yossi) Schwartz, Danielle Schwartz
CREW
Director: Danielle Schwartz
Cinematography: Emmanuelle Mayer
Editing: Thalia Hoffman
Production: Danielle Schwartz
Mirror Image is an award-winning short documentary (11 minutes) that unfolds through a conversation between the filmmaker and her Jewish-Israeli grandparents about a mirror that entered their home after 1948.
What emerges is not a dispute over historical facts, but a negotiation over language: which words can be used, which must be avoided, and what speaking might endanger.
The film explores how history lives inside the family; not only through memory, but through silence, hesitation, and the careful management of meaning. It does not seek to prove or accuse, but to observe how identity and culture shape what can be acknowledged and what remains unspeakable.
Screening Notice: A special screening license is required for all public exhibitions, educational screenings, or presentations within cultural institutions. To secure public performance rights (PPR) or to arrange an educational screening, please contact the distributor directly at danielle@mirror-image.org
PRESS
Hossam el-Hamalawy: Fractured Reflections (2026)
Mike Hoolboom: Invisible, Panorama Cinema (2023)
Benjamin Doherty: Short film reflects on mirror taken from Palestinian village in 1948 (2014)
TALKS & INTERVIEWS
Permission to Narrate: Symposium at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study
With Nadje Abu El-Haj, Aleida Assmann, Danielle Schwartz & Fazil Moradi (2022).
Mirror Image at Community Scholar Program (CSP)
Conversation with Danielle Schwartz (2022).
Mirror Image Film Screening and Discussion about Israel/Palestine
With Danielle Schwartz, Ismail Asaad, Aida AL-Shibli, Eva Orbuch & Rotem Levin (2024).
Aleida Assmann über „Mirror Image“ und „Die Uhr“ (Deutsch)
„Kriegssouvenirs: Wie Filme Erinnerungskultur aufbrechen“, Evangelische Akademie Berlin (2026).
PODCASTS
Hossam el-Hamalawy: The Violence in Ordinary Things (2026)
Shai Hoffmann – Über Israel und Palästina sprechen: History, language, memory: Danielle Schwartz on her film Mirror Image
FESTIVALS
Internationale Vorführungen bei Filmfestivals, Universitäten, Museen und Kulturinstituten, darunter: Palm Springs ShortFest, Warsaw International Film Festival, Kinemathek Tel Aviv, Brücke-Museum Berlin und Evangelische Akademie Berlin
AWARDS
Grand Jury Prize, Short Competition — DOC NYC Film Festival (2014)
Van Leer Award for Best Short Documentary Film — Jerusalem Film Festival (2014)
SCREENING & FILM TALK
The film was presented as part of the event “War Souvenirs: The Clock and Mirror Image” at the Evangelische Akademie zu Berlin, followed by a film discussion with Anna Brass and Danielle Schwartz, and cultural scholar Prof. Dr. Aleida Assmann.
More information about the film and its accompanying dialogue and educational formats: https://linktr.ee/mirror.image