Ein Kerem lies in a steep valley on the western edge of Jerusalem, close enough to the city to be part of it, remote enough to have kept the shape of a village. Stone houses, terraced gardens, cypresses and olive groves climb both slopes, and at the bottom a spring gives the place its name and its long history of settlement. Christian tradition identifies Ein Kerem as the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the birthplace of John the Baptist and the setting of the Visitation; around that memory a remarkable concentration of sanctuaries has grown, including the Church of Saint John the Baptist, the Church of the Visitation on the opposite slope, and Russian and Catholic religious houses whose towers and domes punctuate the hillsides. The film moves between the two registers that define the village today: the devotional one, with pilgrim groups climbing the lanes and singing in several languages, and the secular one, with studios, galleries and cafés that have made Ein Kerem a place of leisure for Jerusalemites. Aerial and evening photography brings out the essential fact of the site — an entire sacred geography contained within a single field of view.
