A New Israeli Musical Film: Victory

 Victory (Hebrew title: The Victors המנצחים), directed by Eliran Peled, is a musical which takes place in the period following the Six Day War of 1967. The film is a parody about war, about bereavement, and about post-trauma. The musical style parodies the euphoria of the post Six Day War period.  The film uses a number of strategies to emphasize the parody – stylized sets, soundstage musical numbers, black and white period footage, some of which is shot with the actors in the scenes, and clips from an historical anti-war cabaret number (by Hanoch Levin) which was performed to an angry audience at Kibbutz Netzer Sereni in 1968.

Neta (Yael Stollman) is a kibbutznik who decides to leave the kibbutz, with her husband, to move to Tel Aviv to become an actress.  As her star rises, and she gets some big parts, her husband returns from the war with PTSD and her best friend’s husband is killed.  She becomes absorbed in his illness, but the euphoria after the great victory of the IDF in this war wins out.

The film was made last year, but is now showing in Israeli cinemas.  It was particularly difficult watching it during this period of the war in Gaza.  We are so far from being in a euphoric state at this time. Watching the soldiers in this film dancing and singing, seeing the suffering of one soldier with post trauma distress, viewing the brit of a baby born to a newly widowed woman, and watching the anti-war cabaret scene, were all difficult in these troubled times.

Farewell Column by Ronnie Ninio mixes Personal and National Narratives

Farewell Column, directed by Ronnie Ninio, starring Dror Keren, is about serious issues facing Israeli society today.  The entire film takes place during the course of 24 hours in the life of Carmi, a well-known political columnist, who is married with two teenage children.

Produced during the height of the covid-19 pandemic, and shot in black & white, the film interweaves and juxtaposes two parallel issues. The first is on the personal level -- how the covid shut-downs have affected family relationships, such as his relationship with his wife and children, and the tension that is building between his aging parents who are cooped up in their small apartment.  The second is on the national level – the anger on the streets between the right and the left, between those who are demonstrating against Bibi (and scenes in the film are shot against the background of real demonstrations on Balfour St. in Jerusalem) and those who support him, and how Carmi’s burden of responsibility leads him to be critical of the government and to write about the need for change in a country that is being led by a corrupt and indicted prime minister. 

Still relevant today – the film could have been made during the period of the uprising against the judicial coup or it could have been made this week, during the period of anti-Bibi demonstrations by all of those who want the hostages to come home and the government to be replaced.  It’s strange how some things never change.

Although a bit slow-moving, Farewell Column is a serious political drama about critical contemporary issues.

The Difficulties of Being a Refugee

Running on Sand, directed by Adar Shafran, is a wonderfully compelling film about refugees in Israel --  how they are treated, the racism that they experience, and the harsh reality of the immigration police and how they track these people down in order to deport them.  In Israel, these refugees are called ‘foreign workers’, a term which denies their political status, and they are all grouped together which makes them basically invisible.

Aumari is an easy-going fellow from Eritrea. He is a long-distance runner, and from the opening sequence, it seems that he ran across all of the desert to reach the border with Israel.  He has been living in Israel for five years, washing dishes for a living, surviving in a shared apartment with other refugees, waiting for his younger brother to join him.  One day, he is caught by the immigration police who want to send him to Uganda. Aumari is frightened that the Ugandans will ship him back to Eritrea, which he knows is a death sentence.

Using his wits, Aumari is able to outsmart the immigration police at the airport.  But he runs into a new complication when he is greeted by the fans of Maccabi Netanya’s soccer team, who are awaiting the arrival of their newest player from Nigeria.  Overnight, he becomes a big soccer star.  But he doesn’t really know or understand the rules of soccer. And thus begins the really compelling part of the film.

As Aumari is trying to make the situation work for him, the film turns into a comedy.  In fact, there are some buffoons on the soccer team, who help with the comic elements – such as the German player who is constantly repeating the swear words in Hebrew and Arabic, and the religious fellow who likes to instruct everyone in the Torah by telling them that you must love the stranger in your midst! 

Aumari is a special type of fellow, able to befriend people, make people laugh, and he succeeds in helping the captain of the team understand how to get everyone to work together.  He even develops a special relationship with the somewhat quirky daughter of the owner of the team. But Aumari understands that permanent status in Israel is elusive and he must return to being a refugee.

It is interesting to note that the remarkable African actors in the film who are playing refugees are actually refugees themselves.

Running on Sand is available from Picture Tree International.

A Gem of a Film About Boys at Risk in Tel Aviv

Children of Nobody, directed by Erez Tadmor, just opened in Israeli cinemas.  I rushed to see it because the filmmaker, Erez Tadmor, is a well-known award-winning director/scriptwriter, known for A Matter of Size (co-directed with Sharon Maymon, 2009) and Strangers (co-directed with Guy Nattiv, 2007, and previously reviewed on this blog).

The film is a surprising gem.  Why surprising?  Because I had clearly unfounded expectations from a film about youth at risk in Tel Aviv.  I expected it to be gritty and filled with violence.  But I was happily surprised to discover a story of charm and grace.

Margalit (played by Tikki Dayan) runs a shelter for boys at risk in the Neve Tzedek area of south Tel Aviv.  The shelter is built on a plot of land which developers are chomping at the bit to get their hands on.  The gentrification of the old neighborhood becomes an issue in the film, and we see how it impacts on the poor and especially the boys, who have nowhere else to call home.

Although Margalit is a loving figure and runs the place like a home, she is worried about the welfare of her more than a dozen boys, and is strict when necessary.  The boys range in age from Benny, who is still wetting his bed, to Yossi, who is turning 18, and hoping to be drafted soon. Their stories are sad stories, including Roman’s – he says his mother put out cigarettes on his arm and he describes it as a railroad track. As a result, he has become a petty thief, which adds tension to the film, every time the police show up to look for him.

Margalit is assisted in running the shelter by Jacky, the handyman, who himself grew up there and has never left.  One day Jacky discovers that the place is in danger of closing, and he decides to take radical steps to prevent that from happening.  He is assisted in his shenanigans, unwittingly, by a lovely French social worker and an aging lawyer, both responsible in different ways, for the shelter. 

The film actually focuses on Jacky, who isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, but turns out to be an intriguing and compelling character.  I highly recommend this film! 

Seven Blessings by Ayelet Menachemi wins big prizes

Sheva Brachot or Seven Blessings, an award-winning film, directed by Ayelet Menachemi, is about complicated family relationships. The film was the big winner of the Israeli Ophir Awards this year – winning for best director, best film, and best actress (Raymonde Amsallem who also starred in The Future this year).  

It is a film about joy, eating, and drinking, all around a family simcha.  But also, behind the façade of the joy, lies a story of jealousies, resentment and family secrets. This is a comedy/drama, a stupendous Moroccan family story that takes place in 1990s Israel.

The main character, Marie, lives in Paris, and comes with her fiancé to Israel to celebrate her wedding with her family members all present.  The film opens with the wedding and the first thing we see is that, when the rabbi calls for the bride’s mother, two mothers hold hands to help her lift her veil and drink the wine. And thus begins a story of two sisters, one who was childless, and one who was blessed with many children. Back in Morocco, the sister with many children gave away one of her children to her childless sister.  The child who was given away was Marie.  She was brought up in a dour household, as against the boisterous household of her parents and her siblings.  And she has many resentments until this day.

As we go from celebration to celebration, marking all the nights of the week following the wedding, we meet all of Marie’s siblings, each with their own problems.  One drinks too much.  One is having fertility treatments.  One is falling out of love with her taxi-driver husband.  I loved the scenes in which everyone talked over everyone else and the way the members of the family so easily moved between speaking Moroccan Arabic, French and Hebrew.

The filmmaker, Ayelet Menachemi, also made Noodle (previously reviewed on this blog), one of my favorite Israeli feature films, also about a strong woman character.

About Golda and the Trials and Tribulations of the Yom Kippur War of 1973

Last year at this time, I wrote a magazine article for the Jerusalem Post about why Israeli filmmakers haven’t made so many films about the Yom Kippur War.  I talked about the fact that the War in Lebanon, and the critique of it, lent itself much more to critical and satirical filmmaking.  The 1973 Yom Kippur War, on the other hand, since it represented a national trauma, was more of a sacred cow and therefore mostly overlooked by filmmakers. 

This year, with the 50^th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War coming up later this month, Israeli society has finally decided to face it head-on in filmmaking (and in major supplements to the Israeli newspapers and on public television).   Two major feature films have been released this year on the subject. 

I’ve already written about The Stronghold, directed by Lior Chefetz, which was a hard-hitting war film about an outpost south of the Suez Canal which was overwhelmed by Egyptian forces on the first days of the war.

Recently, I had the opportunity to see Golda, directed by Guy Nattiv, which provides an intense look during that war at the decision-making by the government leadership -- Golda Meir and members of her cabinet. This is a powerful, persuasive and poignant  film, especially now.  Even though it is not officially classified as an “Israeli film” since it is not made by an Israeli production company, it is nonetheless filled with Israeli subject matter, actors and, of course, the director himself. The real power of the film lies in its protagonist -- Helen Mirren plays the lead role in an overwhelmingly convincing performance.  She brings us into the head and heart of Golda, who was sick with cancer and was getting treatment throughout the war, as we learn from the film, while she was grappling with the problems of the surprise attack and managing the war.

For those who need reminding – the 1973 Yom Kippur War began with a two-pronged surprise attack against Israel.  The Egyptians attacked along the Suez Canal and the Syrians sent massive numbers of tanks to attack on the Golan Heights. Israel was unprepared for this attack and suffered major losses on both fronts.

In the film, Golda’s chain-smoking can be seen as a visual metaphor for the smoke and haze of the battlefield.  But that is the closest we get to the gore of the war.  This is a film about the cabinet meetings, about the decision-making, about the burden of the terrible cost of young lives, and about the international diplomacy which Golda wielded so audaciously. Known as the Iron Lady, she is here depicted as a complex woman with sensitivity, audacity, and great leadership in a very difficult situation, especially since she relied heavily on military intelligence, which turned out to be very faulty.

The film points a finger at three fascinating elements which led to the tragic loss of life – the hubris of Moshe Dayan who didn’t believe the Arab armies were planning a surprise attack, the information obtained by the Mossad which was ignored and the listening devices of the military intelligence which were mostly unused.   

The entire film is seen in retrospect as Golda testifies in front of the 1974 Agranat Commission, which was tasked to investigate what went wrong in the preparedness and who was to blame for the blunders and mistakes of this war.  Although she was acquitted by the Commission, Golda was largely held to blame by Israeli public opinion.  Perhaps this film will help to re-evaluate her contribution to the State of Israel – both in its early years and also during this critical period of the war.

It is interesting to note that the filmmaker, Guy Nattiv, was himself born in 1973, the year of the Yom Kippur War.  So, this year, when we are marking 50 years since that terrible war, Nattiv is turning 50.  Nattiv won an Oscar for best short film for Skin (2018), which put him in a category with Moshe Mizrachi – two Israeli filmmakers who have won Oscars.  Nattiv’s previous feature films (which have been reviewed on this blog) include: The Flood (2010) about a family dealing with a special needs child, and two films in collaboration with Erez Tadmor – Strangers (2008) about forbidden love between a Palestinian and an Israeli who meet abroad and MagicMen (2013) about the relationship between a Holocaust survivor father and his grown son.

I was emotionally wrought after viewing this film. I really felt for Golda, for her personal life and for her commitment to the state of Israel and to the many young soldiers who died during that existential war. Indeed, the filmmaker dedicated this film to them. I was reminded, once again, of the terrible costs of war, and therefore of the need for peacemaking, to avoid such terrible wars in the future.

 

A New Feature Film about the Haredi Community

 Home, directed by Benny Fredman, screenplay written by Benny Fredman and Dror Keren, is a film about greed and hypocrisy within the Jerusalem haredi community.  The story is about a newly-wed couple, Yair and Nava, who are trying to find their way by building a mutually understanding relationship and a warm and loving home.  The story is based on a real event that happened to the filmmaker, when he was a young man, living with his new wife in Geula, which is an over-crowded, haredi neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem. 

The film begins with Yair studying at a kolel (yeshiva) for married men, but he is dreaming of opening a computer store.  When he opens his first store, he is met with a few surprises.  One of them is Nava’s disappointment at the fact that her husband is no longer a torah scholar.  Another is the neighborhood committee which is demanding protection money under the guise of inspecting that he isn’t selling anything that will undermine the morals of the community’s young people.  Yair agrees immediately to selling only computers and MP-3 players (remember those?) which are not connected to the internet or to radio.  As his business grows, the amount of protection money doubles.  Then the terms change, and the committee wants a bigger pound of flesh, but Yair isn’t so willing to play the game. 

In his remarks following the screening of his film, the filmmaker said: “I tried to show both sides, the side of the hero and the side of the head of the neighborhood committee who wants to protect the children of the neighborhood.  I tried to show the complexity of a man who finds himself fighting against his community, his family, everything he knows.”

Home (110 minutes, 2023) is a gripping thriller, with wonderful pacing. The viewer is drawn in and really cares about the characters who are seen with depth and lots of personality.  But most importantly, it is a based-on-real-life look at navigating one’s life within a tight-knit haredi community. The film is available from Go2Films.