Israel: A Home Movie (FILM REVIEW)
Israel: A Home Movie
Film Review by Kam Williams
Israel Revisited via a Collage Culled from Home Movies
Most people’s general impressions of
Israel
come as a result of watching news stories prepared by professional journalists.
If you’re interested in getting a more intimate feeling of the country
untainted by politics, you might want to check out this documentary by Eliav
Lilti.
The movie is basically a collage of home
movies shot by amateur shutterbugs on Super 8 film between the Thirties and the
Seventies. Besides reminding us of mundane fare like birthdays and bar
mitzvahs, it covers subject-matter ranging from euphoric Romanian refugees
dancing on the deck of a boat as they arrive in Israel, to a nurse comforting a
wounded private who has just lost three limbs in battle, to settlers building
in the occupied territories.
Together, these assorted images
prove fascinating, since they paint the melancholy, collective psyche of a haunted
homeland hopelessly caught in cycles of conflict where the next crisis might lurk
just around the corner. For, here, we see a Jewish family grieving a young man
murdered in a terrorist attack. And there, we hear a shell-shocked soldier declare,
“God bless morphine!”
The
tableau that perhaps says it all unfolds at a Yom Kippur beach party whose festivities
are suddenly disrupted when a jet fighter is shot down over the sea. Israel captured
through the eyes of ordinary citizens as a vulnerable refuge where tragedy has
become the norm, and where peace invariably leads back to war.
Very Good
(3 stars)
Unrated
In Hebrew with
subtitles
Running time: 94
minutes
Distributor: Film
Forum
To see a trailer for Israel: A Home Movie, visit:
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