Wadi Rushmia is a valley in the heart of Haifa, a hole in the city dug by the English, who used it as a stone quarry to build the harbour, before abandoning it in the late 1940s. The Arabs in Haifa's Wadi Salib neighbourhood took refuge here during the war in 1948, after being evicted from their homes-which were then destroyed. Later, during the 1950s, Jews from Northern Africa and Eastern Europe moved in. The film shows Arab and Jewish families at the moment when the municipality, who wants to "rehabilitate" the Wadi, has to choose between imposing a specific urban environment or leaving the neighbourhood residents free to create their own environment.
The trilogy consisting of Wadi, Wadi, Ten Years Later and Wadi Grand Canyon, 2001 was filmed in this same valley.