How do you make an apolitical film about one of Israel's most wrenching political events?

That was the challenge facing Avi Abelow, a Manhattan Day School graduate who made aliyah in 1990 at the age of 16, and whose film, "Home Game," an 83-minute documentary about Netzer Chazani, a settlement of Gush Katif, is being shown here and in Israel to mark the first anniversary of the disengagement from Gaza.

Culled from over 80 hours of home film, most of which was provided by the settlers themselves, the movie focuses on the last game of the annual Gush Katif youth basketball tournament, between Netzer Chazani and Neve Dekalim. The game was held on the very day that the players' families were supposed to leave Gush Katif, and soldiers were already approaching the town to evacuate it.

"The idea was to help people understand the struggle of the residents of Netzer Chazani to keep their homes, by juxtaposing it with the youths' struggle to win the basketball game," said Abelow, a firm defender of the settlement movement who lives in the West Bank town of Efrat.

"We wanted to make a film that the political left will watch, and we felt sports is something everyone can connect to. Even when your team is fighting against all odds, you still play to win. We used the motif of the game to explain why people stayed in their homes until the end."

The film premiered last week in 50 locations around Israel and two in the U.S.; despite the Israel-Hezbollah war, over 5,000 people saw the movie.

Production of "Home Game" started when Abelow took a month's unpaid leave from his job as a management consultant last year to protest the disengagement from Gaza. The crossings into Gush Katif were closed already; it took him a week and a half to find a way to sneak into Netzer Chazani.

A novice at filmmaking, Abelow turned to the displaced families for most of the footage, which includes the basketball tournament, town meetings and teenagers discussing the future.

Leaving Gush Katif was toughest on the young, according to Anita Tucker, who lived there for more than 30 years.

"Avi tells the story well," she said. "It tells the faith the kids have, the fortitude they have, their parents' reactions and the dilemma for the kids of what to do."

Abelow said his goal was not to change anyone's mind about the political efficacy of the disengagement, but rather to create more unity between Jews.

"This project is part of the process of healing in the Jewish community," he said. To be a strong nation, he added, "we have to empathize with the personal tragedies we each experience."

Called up in the reserves during the recent war with Hezbollah, Abelow left his post in protest after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the war would help speed up Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank. He expects to serve a jail term for his actions.

Volunteer film promoters in Passaic, Teaneck, and Riverdale have copies of the movie and are planning organized public showings. Clips are available at homegamethemovie.com and on YouTube. The film will be shown Saturday, Sept. 16 at 10 p.m. at Congregation Beth Aaron in Teaneck.

Sarah Bronson/Jerusalem