“I always see the person behind the case,” pronounces Israeli human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel, as she again fights for due process in the cases of Palestinians accused of terrorism. This intimate, unflinching portrait follows Tsemel as she defends a 13-year-old boy who participated in a knife attack, and a disturbed woman whose failed suicide bombing may have been more about suicide than politics. Decades of mostly losing cases has not deterred her, and led to her 1999 win of a landmark case in which the Supreme Court ruled that interrogations cannot involve torture. Tsemel’s family escaped the Holocaust by moving to Israel, and her compassionate empathy for those without a homeland is the force that empowers her uphill struggle for a system that is fair to all. As this moving and illuminating film reveals, war is what happens when two opposing sides are unable to hear each other. Peace begins when you listen.

In competition for the Best Documentary Award

Directors Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche are expected to be in attendance on January 5 and 6.