Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: Laila in Haifa

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

Laila in Haifa
Directed by Amos Gitai
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One conversation can provide a window into who people are, but it doesn’t present the entire picture. What someone says and communicates is influenced by their experiences, their moods, and what their aims are. Two people inherently come from different places and motivations, and the way that they interact has an effect that shapes the response each gives the other. Plenty of information can be gleaned merely from listening to the manner in which two people talk to each other, observing what they offer, what they omit, and what they learn as a result of their willingness – or refusal – to listen.

In Haifa, a number of people come together as they spend one night at a club, discussing art, identity, occupation, romance, and much more. At the center is Laila (Maria Zreik), who owns an art gallery and is married to wealthy Palestinian mogul Kamal (Makram J. Khoury). Laila is also involved with Israeli photographer Gil (Tsahi Halevi), who wants to showcase the notions of organized resistance that Kamal seeks instead to avoid. Kamal receives his own call to action from Bahira (Bahira Ablassi), a woman deeply involved in Palestinian causes who demands his attention. Other personalities include Naama (Naama Preis), Gil’s sister who has her own relationship issues.

This multi-character ensemble piece is reminiscent of another Israeli film that played at an American festival several years ago, “Six Acts.” It moves gracefully from scene to scene, inviting those seen earlier back for reappearances as they have the opportunity to interact with another person and reveal a new part of themselves. While Laila gets title billing, she’s merely one of the people with a strong opinion about who she is and what she believes, and it’s Bahira and Naama who strand out most vividly, making an intense impression as they impart their perspectives on their conversation partners.

This film is involving because it constantly offers something new throughout the course of its runtime, moving from what moment that may be less intriguing to some to another that could be of more interest. It plays out in a narrative format even if it’s really just a collection of assembled scenes whose content might be more expected in a play than a film. As a portrait of the multicultural nature of Haifa and the vast spectrum of attitudes and identities contained within it, this film is an eye-opening and thought-provoking thesis containing some memorable performances and statements.

B+

Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: The Prophet

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

The Prophet
Directed by Ilan Rubin Fields
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There are those who believe that, had Jews been armed during the Holocaust, they would have been able to defend themselves against Nazis intent on exterminating them. While those theories have been mostly debunked, others have taken what occurred to their people as inspiration to change the future. The expression “Never again” has been applied to advocate against the genocides of other groups, and some have used the horrific treatment of Jews during that time period as a forceful call to take up arms and actively fight to ensure that no such event could ever be possible again.

Rabbi Meir Kahane was a controversial figure in America during his early years, founding the Jewish Defense League, which took an aggressive stand on combating anti-Semitism. After multiple arrests in New York, Kahane immigrated to Israel. He formed the political party Kach, which he went on to represent for one term in the Israeli Knesset after his election in 1984. His militant attitude towards the presence of Arabs in Israel and the staunch insistence on the inherent Jewishness made him many enemies and earned Kach the distinction of being banned from contending in elections.

Kach was assassinated in 1991 at the age of fifty-eight after giving a speech in New York, but this film asserts a strong and formidable legacy that has gone on to inspire a generation of right-wing activism in Israel that has on multiple occasions led to horrific acts of violence, including the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994 and the murder of a Palestinian teenager following the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in 2014. Kach was a firm believer in the right to free speech, something he used regularly to demean the rights of those he thought to be lesser than Jews, twisting that liberty to his own ideals.

There are clear comparisons to be made to today’s white nationalist movements in America and other places around the world, and to the rhetoric of hatred and violence that is freely broadcast by influential politicians. Many interviewees in this film unapologetically affirm their still-existent reverence for Kahane, praising him as a motivational speaker and man of principle. In addition to providing a comprehensive and fascinating biography of someone who knew what the power of his words could be, this film offers an important lesson on how easily people can be motivated to dangerous ideas and how normalizing them in any way can make them even more malicious.

B+

Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: Objector

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

Objector
Directed by Molly Stuart
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During the Vietnam War, it became clear just how strong the sentiment of many in the United States was against the idea of fighting in a conflict that wasn’t compatible with their sense of morality. A nationwide draft, through employed numerous times during war, has not occurred since then. In Israel, however, all Israeli citizens are required to enlist in the military at age eighteen, which creates a culture where everyone is assumed to have served. While exemptions do occur for religious and other reasons, there is an increasing movement against mandatory service based on the objection of recruits to the idea of helping to sustain an occupation.

Atalya is a young Israeli who is set to join the army when she turns eighteen. Her sympathies to the plight of Palestinians have compelled her to do more research of her own and familiarize herself with the human component of a system that she views as highly discriminatory and very problematic. She speaks to members of her family who are unhappy with her decision to protest and her plan to go to jail rather than cooperatively enlist, imparting to her both a sense of the necessity of service and what they view as shortsighted hopes of reconciliation with a population they don’t believe is actually interested in peace.

Like others who feel that they have been indoctrinated with a certain mentality and force-fed only one side of the story, Atalya feels a particular drive to push back because of how stuck in their ways she sees her parents and her community members as being. There are forceful perspectives conveyed from everyone interviewed, including a family member who tells her that “nonviolence is for the weak, and Israel isn’t weak.” One Palestinian Atalya speaks to about his experiences explicitly distinguishes between the occupation and Jews, nothing that the former is evil while the latter are not.

What this film portrays above anything else is authenticity, since Atalya is transmitting what she truthfully believes, and putting her life on the line to make sure that she sticks to her principles. Everyone she interacts with, regardless of how they see things, offers her their honest take, and, opinionated as she is, Atalya does seem willing to listen even if her mind is made up. This film portrays all options as equally valid, showcasing the passionate outlook of one person and her need to do what she can to change the narrative.

B+

Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: A Common Goal

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

A Common Goal
Directed by Shuki Guzik
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The Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, includes a mention of the “Jewish soul” and the way in which the country serves as a fulfillment of a centuries-long dream to return to a homeland. Though it was founded as a Jewish state, Israel serves as home to a diverse population. The primary conflict known to the international community is between Israelis and Palestinians, but there exists also a discord with the Arab Israeli citizens of the country, who consider it their home as well but cannot relate to many of the defining qualities that categorize it as explicitly Jewish since they are not in fact Jewish.

The Israeli national soccer team currently has more Arab players than ever before, including its first-ever Muslim captain. While many fans are supportive of the team and hopeful that its latest roster will lead it to unprecedented victory, others are unhappy with the idea that a team that was predominantly Jewish for most of its history is no longer that way. At games all over Europe, press outlets have started reporting on the athletes in Arabic, giving these team members an opportunity to represent their communities and feel just as much a sense of national pride as anyone else who feels Israel’s values align more completely with theirs.

This documentary smartly spends the entirety of its brief fifty-two-minute runtime focused on the Arab athletes on the team, offering very minimal input from those who might more typically be in the spotlight. They all share what is important to them and what they have experienced growing up as members of minorities to then become stars whose accomplishments aren’t as widely or consistently celebrated as those of their other Jewish teammates. They speak openly and unapologetically, recounting discrimination and difficulties encountered along the way.

It’s even more interesting to examine the subject of this movie at a film festival hosted in America, where players not behaving as expected during the singing of the national anthem has been cause for enormous controversy and condemnation from those who feel that it shows a lack of respect or patriotism. Each non-Jewish member of the team explains why they don’t sing about having a Jewish soul, and, despite the challenges, there are positive relationships among the players and benefits of being part of something cooperative and fulfilling. Sports enthusiasts may find even more here in this invigorating portrait of a system that is far from perfect but is on its way toward more inclusion and progress, not to mention a better standing in the league.

B+

Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: Golda

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

Golda
Directed by Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir, and Shani Rozanes
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Israel has only existed as a country for fewer than seventy-five years, and over the course of that time, has not had many prime ministers. Five leaders – David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres, and the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – have been elected to separate non-consecutive terms. Their legacies are full of important moments in Israel’s brief but very storied history, and, particularly for the earliest holders of the office, involve international influences in place before Israel was declared a state. One of the most famous among them was Golda Meir.

Meir was born in 1898 in Kiev and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She moved to what was then Palestine with her husband in 1921 and was an influential figure in Israeli politics, serving as the Minister of Labor and Foreign Minister, among other positions. When Levi Eshkol died of a heart attack in 1969, Meir, who had retired, was chosen to become Prime Minister. Her turbulent five years leading the country are explored in this documentary, which includes footage recorded after an aired interview shortly before her death from lymphoma in 1978 that finds her discussing much more openly and casually her true thoughts on Israel and the decisions she made in its stewardship.

This film offers a remarkable window into the way that Meir thought, showing her facial expression and her body language as she gave interviews and smoked a signature cigarette between carefully-calculated and direct words. The demeanor she has when the cameras stop broadcasting isn’t remarkably changed, but she does see an opportunity to address that which she may have been less willing to clarify knowing how it might be perceived. She is someone who, throughout her life, put tremendous consideration into all of her personal and political moves whose effects and consequences she knew would be remembered.

Meir’s time in office coincided almost perfectly with that of U.S. President Richard Nixon’s, and while Meir also resigned, that significant act was not treated with widespread condemnation. Her attitude in conversations that follow her term does not involve a staunch protest against unfair treatment, but instead a defense of what motivated her to do them and what she has seen come about as a result, not to mention what could have been had she done nothing. As assembled here, that footage and the interviews conducted with people who interacted with her during her life proves extremely insightful and informative, painting a picture of a leader combating impressions imposed upon her as a woman in a position of power whose resolve never wavered despite considerable turmoil during the most formative years of her career.

B+

Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: One More Jump

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

One More Jump
Directed by Emanuele Gerosa
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Sports are a common way that people escape their environments and move on to something else. High school students head to particular colleges based on athletic scholarships, and many train for years to impress scouts and make a future for themselves. Those means aren’t always possible, and a drive serves instead as a distraction and a way to channel frustrated energy into something productive. Participation creates community and instills a sense of belonging that be a force for positivity when it feels like someone truly can’t do anything to change their circumstances.

This documentary opens in Gaza with a group of young men running together through the streets before reaching a more open space where they can practice their chosen art form: parkour. They train vigorously to master their skills and to remain active, their main hope for satisfaction given the unlikelihood of being able to leave. Jehad is a mentor for many young Gazans eager to follow in his footsteps, while his friend Abdallah has moved to Italy, where his dreams of entering the world of parkour are becoming increasingly real.

This film begins with an invigorating rhythm, showing the sincere joy that its subjects get from being able to express themselves in this way. There is something sincerely exciting that comes from seeing them jump and spin, showing off their tremendous abilities as they work to become even better. There is an extraordinarily meaningful metaphor that exists in their training to move in a manner that most can’t, when that won’t enable them to vault over the physical barriers that separate them from the life they might want.

From its energetic start, this film travels down a less optimistic road as reality for Jehad and Abdallah sets in. Jehad witnesses the unrest that exists in Gaza as he and his friends feel subjugated and abandoned by both Israel and neighboring Arab countries, and he can do nothing to prevent or affect it. Abdallah feels like a stranger in a foreign land because opportunity meant leaving his home behind, and he risks being forgotten if he fails to make a name for himself and to represent his community from afar. The camera serves as a formidable storyteller, following these real people as they walk, run, and jump through a city that may be very far from perfect but it still their own and defines them. This film is an effective vehicle to tell their story, sharing a window into their unique mentality.

B+

Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: Ma’abarot

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

Ma’abarot
Directed by Dina Zvi Riklis
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In 1948, Israel officially became a country and faced many uphill battles in the formation of its nation, including minimal international recognition of its right to exist. The creation of a Jewish state was seen by communities around the world as a return to its historical homeland, and tremendous numbers came to Israel seeking a safe haven from their countries of origin, which were no longer friendly to them. The attitude towards Holocaust survivors from Europe and Jews from the Middle East and Africa was not the same, fostering a system of inequality explored in depth in this documentary.

This film’s title refers to the transit camps established to house the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals to the country. Former residents who lived for years in these camps are interviewed as they reflect back upon what they experienced and the way that they were treated, explaining how the camps were structured and run. Those coming from Yemen, Morocco, Syria, and other places note the disparity in the governmental perception of their communities and those from Romania, Poland, and other Ashkenazi areas who were given access to superior housing options and generally better fortunes.

The ideas covered in this film are far from surprising, and they feel reminiscent of the current spotlight on systemic racism in America. While many would not acknowledge that they see a difference between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic residents of Israel, it is clear that those who have experienced discrimination and unequal circumstances believe their perspectives to be valid, which in itself is reason enough to hear from them and learn from what they have to share. As a selection of the Other Israel Film Festival, this film serves a crucial function examining Israeli society as much more complex than simply a years-long conflict between Jewish and non-Jewish populations.

The content presented in this film is unsettling since the trauma endured by so many of its interviewees continues to be felt decades after their arrival to Israel. The use of archive footage of the transit camps is very effective in recreating the feeling of the time, and hearing from the people who now have much more life experience to reflect back on than they did when they first entered Israel is truly meaningful. Most countries aren’t nearly as young as Israel and the road to where things are at the moment must be traced through a much longer process, and this film offers a rare opportunity to look back a short time and gain tremendous knowledge from those still around to talk about what they remember.

B+

Other Israel Film Festival Spotlight: Crossings

I’m delighted to be returning for the seventh time to cover the Other Israel Film Festival, which features a diverse crop of Israeli and Palestinian cinema and is hosted by the JCC Manhattan. The 14th Annual Other Israel Film Festival runs virtually December 3rd-10th, 2020.

Crossings
Directed by Itzik Lerner 

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The checkpoints that exist throughout Israel separating the country from Palestinian territories are a subject of much controversy around the world. Its harshest critics compare it to the maintenance of an apartheid state in which the movement of Palestinians is severely restricted and controlled by an unfeeling imperial power. Israel defends its actions as necessary to its own security, citing past threats that have emerged by those who seek to deny its right to exist through violence and terrorism. Whatever arguments there may be for and against them, the fact at this moment is that they exist.

This film doesn’t expressly take a position on the legitimacy of these border crossing stations and whether they are just. The straightforward presentation of footage speaks volumes, showing the way in which Palestinians wait for hours to get to the jobs they are desperate to keep, subject to the whims of an Israeli soldier who will determine whether they are permitted to go or must turn back for any number of seemingly arbitrary reasons. But that isn’t the focus of this film, which instead provides an unexpectedly intimate look at the lives and training protocols of the Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoints.

Working both as a soldier and at a border crossing is new for most of these young Israelis who aren’t prepared for the pressures that come with it. They are encouraged to compete with each other and told to toughen up when they complain about painful boots or undue stresses that they are expected to get through rather than acknowledge. When they begin to question their purpose and the validity of their presence, they are reminded that this is the job and that the security of the country depends on them following orders and remaining vigilant.

It’s never made clear who commissioned this film and what perspective it’s meant to represent. Those shown on camera are obviously aware that they are being filmed, and that doesn’t seem to affect their behavior in any way, with harsh statements being made and crying occurring frequently. Director Itzik Lerner’s last film, which also played at the Other Israel Film Festival, was “Megiddo,” showcasing Palestinians housed in a high-security prison, also training its lens on fascinating subjects and simply allowing them to speak without framing the narrative in an influential way. Like that film, this is an undeniably enlightening approach, even if it leaves moral takeaways entirely up to its viewers.

B