
Orphaned Land: A Heaven You May Create
2023


Sima Shimony, age 69, embarks on a mission to find her friends and staff from the "ALYN" Institute for Children with Disabilities, which was situated in the secluded San-Simon monastery in Jerusalem, during the 1960s. Armed with a small camera attached to her wheelchair, she sets off on a journey across the country together with her friend Pini Newirth, also a polio child, to unfold and reclaim the story of the children affected by the Polio epidemic. In a futile attempt to rebuild their bodies so they could walk, the children were subjected to excruciating medical procedures with no parents or family at their side. But growing up together forged a group of remarkable, self-driven women and men with disabilities who eventually launched the Disability Rights movement in Israel.
Directed by Shachar Gal-Nur



Pini Newirth
self
Sima Shimony
self

2023

2025

1967

2008

2014

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2023

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2006

2023

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2000