A mix of German and Palestinian film students have worked on rebuilding the cinema, with local workers. (Cinema Jenin) The efforts of a German filmmaker and a group of Palestinian young people could result in the reopening of a cinema in Jenin in the Palestinian territories later this summer.

Germany's Marcus Vetter has been working toward the reopening for three years, since he made the inspiring documentary The Heart of Jenin, but discovered he could not show it in the West Bank town where it was made.

"What Cinema Jenin is all about is trust, because trust is like love, and if you don't trust you will get something other back than love, other feelings will come back to you," Vetter told CBC News.

Vetter's The Heart of Jenin is about a Palestinian couple who lost their 11-year-old son Ahmed to an Israeli bullet, but who agreed to donate his organs to save other children, both Arab and Israeli.

The Jenin cinema, the only one on the West Bank, has been shut for more than 20 years.

When Ismail and Abla Khatib, Ahmed's parents, asked him to help reopen the cinema, Vetter couldn't say no.

After 20 years, the Jenin Cinema needed extensive renovation. (Cinema Jenin) Vetter admitted he's never organized a building and fundraising project before.

"You can't open such a place just by helping," he said. "It's a real work, I realized very fast. It's impossible. What I could have helped with was fundraising, but raising money is nothing —raising money means corruption."

With the help of Palestinian project manager Fakri Hamad, Vetter has turned to renovation into a bigger project — that has the potential to change the town itself.

Local young people were recruited to help renovate the indoor cinema, build an outdoor one and add a café and guesthouse.

"We started with a small idea to have a place for kids to play and learn something, but it's become a project of the town itself," Fakri said. "Now Jenin has the chance to prove it's ready to accept other cultures to accept the peace to accept the dialogue."

In addition to building the cinema, young Palestinians are learning film-making side by side with German film students, who also come to Jenin to work on the building. The final piece of the project is creation of a production company, so young filmmakers can continue to work.

It's cost more than $500,000 so far. The German government and corporate donors have funded the bulk of the project, but it also was supported by dozens of international donors, among them Rogers Waters of Pink Floyd fame.

Waters stepped forward earlier this year, when the project had run out of cash. Vetter had written to six donors appealing for $100,000 to keep working, and Waters was the only one who replied.

"Having met all the people involved, I feel connected to them and I felt it was the least I could do was to give them the money to finish the project," Waters said.

Waters said he found the Khatib family's story about the loss of their son very moving.

"This project is fundamentally and always attached to this story, this incredibly moving story," Waters said. "He gives the rest of us hope that we may some point find a partial solution to the plight the Palestinian people find themselves in."

For the Khatibs, Cinema Jenin is the fulfilment of a dream. They want young people to have more of everything than their son had in his short life, including opportunities.

Cinema Jenin is scheduled for relaunch Aug. 5 to 7.

With files from CBC's Irris Makler