DIPLOMAT

Once a 5-star hotel, today the Diplomat in Jerusalem is a hostel offering émigrés from the former Soviet Union a “new home“. With 600 residents, 8 storeys and 700 rooms it is a world unto itself complete with second hand shops, medical facilities and cultural activities. The long-term residents, who have spent more than 10 years in this supposedly temporary accommodation, tell of their second existence far from the day-to-day life of the Israeli capital. We explore the different living quarters of this other world while extensive tracking shots through corridors flooded with sunlight evoke a captivating, dreamlike atmosphere. A fascinating insight into the reality of a life beyond reality.