Getting Stoned

The anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 British commitment to the establishment of a Jewish state, always stirs emotions in Israel--and cast and crew of “Riding the Edge” got a firsthand look last week.

The action-adventure, directed by James Fargo (“The Enforcer”) and starring Raphael Sbarge and Catherine Mary Stewart, was shooting at a Palestinian refugee camp near Jericho. The first day of shooting happened to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the declaration and the occasion resulted in a number of camp residents pelting the set with rocks and blocking the cameras during filming. The excitement brought six armed Israeli military trucks to the scene to quell the crowds.

(Two days later, a rock the size of a grapefruit barely missed a crew member. Whenever Fargo yelled “Action!,” Palestinian onlookers unloaded jeering whistles.)

“There are obviously a lot of undercurrents here that we don’t understand,” said producer Wolf Schmidt, “but I can’t figure out why we are encountering such problems when we are only making a movie here and paying them to do so. Maybe this camp is an outpost for the Teamsters.”

Set in an unnamed North African country, “Riding” is about a young man’s efforts to find his kidnaped father.