Tag: Israel

AMERICA – Review

(L-R) Yotam (Ofri Biterman), Iris (Oshrat Ingedashet) and Eli (Michael Moshonov) in AMERICA. Photo credit: Beta Cinema. Courtesy of Menemsha Films

AMERICA, despite the title, is not set in the U.S. nor is it about America, Instead, it is a deeply human, moving, emotionally complex, intelligent Israeli drama an Israeli man who has lived in America for decades but returns after the death of his long-estranged father, to deal with the estate, and reconnects with some people from his past. Human relationships, and a different take on a love triangle, as the center of the fine drama/romance AMERICA, from the director of the international hit THE CAKEMAKER. Israeli writer/director Ofir Raul Graizer helmed both that excellent German drama and this new this Hebrew-language drama/romance, which feels like a kind of sequel in its similar emotional, poignant style.

AMERICA centers on an Israeli-born man, Eli (Michael Moshonov), who has lived in Chicago for ten years, since leaving Israel as a teenager. A one-time swimming champion, Eli now has made a life for himself in America as a swimming instructor, with no intention to even return to Israel, even changing his name to leave his past behind, But Eli is reluctantly compelled to return to Israel, in order to sort out the estate of his late father, from whom he was long estranged. The swimmer only intends to stay long enough to sell his father’s house in Tel Aviv and therefore settle the estate.

At his old house, Eli runs into an old neighbor by chance, Moti (Moni Moshonov), who is very glad to see him. The swimming instruction is pleased as well to see Moti, who was kind and even a kind of father-figure to Eli as a boy after his mother died and the boy struggled in his difficult relationship with his police chief father. The chance meeting leads Eli to reconnect with Moti’s son Yotam (Ofri Biterman), a childhood friend who shared his love of swimming, and to meet his friend’s fiancee, Iris (Oshrat Ingedashet), who has a flower shop in Jaffa which she runs with Yotam. Yotam no longer swims but helps Iris run her flower shop. Iris is estranged from her strict Moroccan family, much like Eli is estranged from his.

We catch a frisson of attraction between Eli and Iris but of course neither acts on it because of Yotam. A tragic accident changes everybody’s plans, creating a complicated situation for everyone.

Director Graizer uses beautiful, evocative locations and settings to deepen scenes and add to character. The flower shop that Iris runs is crowded with colorful blooms and green foliage, offering a lush, even sensual, setting around which much of the drama unfolds. It seems to symbolize life, and the setting particularly wrapping Iris in beauty and vibrant life. In one scene, the old friends drive out to remote location, a favorite swimming hole of their youth, and take a long trek through difficult, dry terrain to arrive at a beautiful waterfall and idyllic pool of water beneath it.

Like THE CAKEMAKER, the story is layered with details that gives it the feel of reality, and the people in it are complex in the way real people are. That depth of detail and layered character makes the film intriguing as well as unpredictable. We can guess some things that happen but we never know when some new twist, some surprise – good or bad – is lurking around the next corner. The sense of reality unfolding gives the film a kind of tension but also makes the characters wholly believable. We can’t resist being drawn into the lives of these interesting people.

The fine script is further boosted by an excellent cast, who create people we like, even if we don’t understand everything about them. As the story unfolds, dilemmas arise and complex ethical choices face them. The characters are forced to make choices, where the right path isn’t always clear.

This excellent drama is a follow-up, in a way, to the director’s previous one, THE CAKE MAKER, a hit film that also had complicated people in complicated situations with a romantic theme, but people we pull for. The script in both these films is superb, as is the work of the cast. This is the kind of intelligent, human storytelling fans of serious drama long for, yet AMERICA, like its predecessor, also delivers as an entertaining film.

AMERICA opened Friday, July 4, in select theaters and expands to additional cities on Friday, August 2.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

MATCHMAKING – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival Review

Nechama (Liana Ayoun, at center right) meets a not-too-promising date, in the romantic comedy MATCHMAKING. Courtesy of Israeli Films

MATCHMAKING, one of the best comedies at this year’s St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, is a romantic comedy about a young Orthodox Jewish who seems to have everything a family could want in a match – good family, good grades, good looks – but who is pining for a girl who, on paper, does not match up.

Yeshiva student Moti Bernstein (Amit Rahav) is a good student and obedient son from a respected Israeli Ashkenazi Jewish family who has reached the age to start looking for a wife. Moti is a catch who has it all – handsome, smart, tall, from a good Ashkenazi family – everything any matchmaker or Orthodox family would want. As an A-list candidate in the books of Orthodox matchmaking, Moti is a guy who should have his pick of any girl he wants for a bride. So what’s the problem? While the matchmaker is busily arranging dates to match this A-list find, Moti is secretly falling for his sister’s best friend, a girl no matchmaker would pick for this top prospect. But who decides it is a perfect match?

The delightfully funny, charming Israeli romantic comedy MATCHMAKING poses just this dilemma, where the heart and the head part ways in the matter of marriage, while giving us insights into the world of Orthodox Jewish matchmaking. MATCHMAKING leans into the comedy, with wonderful performances and a surprising amount of slapstick in this light Jewish take on Romeo and Juliet. The Israeli romantic comedy, directed and co-written by Erez Tadmor, has been a hit at numerous Jewish film festivals and a smash in Israel, with its charming performances, laugh-out-loud moments, and thoughtful look at the practice of matchmaking in the Jewish Orthodox community.

The matchmaker looks at their lists of people seeking a marriage and match people up according to family background and standing, the prospect’s personal characteristics and interests, and offers those prospective brides and grooms to their clients, with the approval of families. The couple then meet in a short series of dates, where they ask each other questions and get a sense of the potential spouse. But ultimately, it is the couple who decide. If he thinks she’s his match, he proposes and the wedding is on. If either thinks it won’t work, he or she can turn down further dates.

Eager to please his parents and looking forward to the marriage that will start his adult life, Moti dutifully goes on his arranged dates with some beautiful young women, including a gorgeous American Jewish young woman from a rich family. She is a rare catch, and marriage to her would mean his future would be secured and comfortable, and he would be free spending his time as a scholar, studying the Torah, the highest, most prestigious ambition in his community. Yet Moti’s eye is repeatedly drawn to his younger sister’s friend Nechama (Liana Ayoun).

He’s known this girl practically all his life, yet now when he is supposed to be deciding between one perfect girl and another, he keeps thinking about her instead of the prospects he’s dating. She’s pretty, she’s smart, she’s serious – all things Moti admires – but she’s also half-Sephardic, with a mother from North Africa, which in Israeli Orthodox society means her family is nowhere near his equal. She’s on no one’s A-list, and the only Ashkenazi she could hope to be paired with is Moti’s short, asthmatic, socially-awkward schoolmate . It’s a mismatch in the matchmakers’ books.

Moti is a dutiful son and tries to focus on his obligation to pick a spouse that pleases his family, but what about his own heart? Will he forget her with time, as others tell him, especially if his choice lands him in the lap of luxury? What should Moti do – and what’s more, what can he do?

The cast is charming and the love-and-marriage conundrum allows the film to gently explore the limits of matchmaking, where family standing and parents’ preferences rather than the young person’s feelings that determine what is a perfect match. The film gently discusses the pros and cons of the system – it’s success in pairing like to like backgrounds for a solid marriage versus what can go wrong if couple’s families are too different.

As Moti, Amit Rahav gives a strong performance as the appealingly conflicted young man, trying to be the perfect son but also aware of his growing feelings. As Nechama, Liana Ayoun is appealing as well, but someone who is more practical and even skeptical, and looks at the situation with less emotion and with a wary eye on Moti’s feelings, wondering if they might fade. Even if they both want this match – by no means clear – what would be the price be for their families?

As the two young people and their families dance around the problem, MATCHMAKING throws in little comic relief bits as we explore the serious side of the issue. Some of that comic relief comes from one of Moti’s classmates, a shy, awkward guy with asthma who is not on anyone’s A list despite his good family. While Moti goes on his dates, Nechama goes on a few of her own, with no winning prospects but some comic moments. On the other hand, a male matchmaker, Baruch (a wonderful warm and funny Maor Schwietzer), who never married and still lives at the yeshiva, revisits his own tragic romantic history.

MATCHMAKING weaves all these elements – thoughtful, humorous, romantic – into a wonderful, funny and warm tapestry that leads to insights on the challenges of love and marriage.

MATCHMAKING, in Hebrew with English subtitles, plays the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival on Sunday, Apr. 14 at 3:30pm at the B&B West Olive Cinema in Creve Coeur.

GOLDA – Review

Helen Mirren as Golda Meir and Liev Schreiber as Henry Kissinger, in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ GOLDA Photo credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures

Helen Mirren portrays Golda Meir, Israel’s first women prime minister, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in GOLDA. Internationally, Golda Meir is known as the “Iron Lady of Israel” and is an admired figure but she is more controversial in her home country of Israel. In the British historical drama GOLDA, Israeli-American director Guy Nativ and British scriptwriter Nicholas Martin aim to offer a fresh look at Golda Meir by focusing on her during the Yom Kippur War, when Israel found itself facing two invading armies, from Egypt in the Sinai and Syria in the Golan Heights.

Mirren plays Golda Meir in heavy makeup and prosthetics, transforming her appearenceappearance to more closely resemble the much-photographed Golda Meir and allow director Nativ to more easily include generous use of archival footage and even insert Mirren into some of those scenes. Mirren’s physical transformation is impressive enough to draw gasps, but some have criticized the makeup as restricting her performance, while others, including this writer, feel that Mirren still delivers an affecting performance, which some have called Oscar-worthy.

Adding to the controversy is that Helen Mirren is not Jewish, raising objections to “Jew face” casting. However, Israeli-American director Guy Nativ sought her out for this role, after she was first suggested by Golda Meir’s grandson Gideon Meir, who was a consultant on the drama. Mirren’s carefully-researched, restrained performance gives little room for criticism, and having an Israeli-born director, plus a strong supporting cast with many Israel and Jewish actors, also goes a ways towards softening the issue.

GOLDA is neither a true biopic nor is it a battlefield war epic, and people expecting either will be disappointed. Instead, it is a engrossing and tense, ticking-clock drama in which Helen Mirren gives a taut portrayal of Golda Meir during the Yom Kippur War, which was an existential threat to Israel but ultimately led to the peace accord and recognition with Egypt.

Golda Meir was an Israeli national hero when she was chosen as Israel’s first (and so far only) woman prime minister but she was considered an interim choice because the sides could not agree on a choice. By any standard, Meir had a remarkable life, from her childhood in Ukraine under the Russia empire, to her family’s emigration to Milwaukee, to her decision as a young woman to move to Israel and fight in its war for independence. But GOLDA neither a full biography nor is it a full examination of the events of the Yom Yippur War, but a hybrid of the two that focuses on Golda Meir’s experience of that war.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War came not long after the Six Days War, where that quick victory left Israeli generals feeling overconfident. GOLDA opens with a brief montage of archival images and video to recap some early Israeli history, and then moves on to a post-Yom Kippur War hearing, where Prime Minister Golda Meir (Mirren) is being questioned by the Agranat commission about controversial decisions made during the war, which had high casualties on all sides.

The commission is used as a framing devise for Golda to tell her story of the war, from her perspective. That retelling begins with Prime Minister Golda Meir getting a report from the head of Mossad, Zvi Zamir (Israeli actor Rotem Keinan), about a source warning of an imminent attack by both Egypt and Syria, Israel’s neighbors to the south and north, a warning that comes in October just as Yom Kippur is approaching.

Unfortunately, this same Mossad source has warned of an attack earlier in the year, which never took place. so Meir knows defense minister Moshe Dayan (Israeli actor Rami Heuberger) will be skeptical. When she meets with her military advisors, all men, they show her little respect, barely remembering to stand for her as they would for any prime minister. Overconfident after the success of the Six Day War, the generals mostly dismiss the idea of an attack during the high holy days, even though Meir warns is a perfect time for one. Military intelligence head Eli Zeira (Israeli actor Dvir Benedek) assures her that their secret listening system will warn them of any attack well in advance, even despite the holiday. He’s wrong.

The film is packed with famous figures of Israeli history, and the cast includes Israel stars Lior Ashkenazi as General David “Dado” Elazar and Ohad Knoller as a young Ariel Sharon, while Liev Schreiber plays U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The acting is strong but nuanced throughout, but the drama is more emotionally restrained than explosive.

While billed as a “political thriller,” GOLDA lacks the pulse-pounding pace of a thriller. Instead, it is more a tense, involving drama, as we follow Golda Meir closely as she copes with war on two fronts, a team of over-confident all-male generals who are shocked when their forces are at first overwhelmed, and her own anguish over war casualties. The sexism of the era is present, as the men who are supposed to serve her as prime minister often fail to even stand when she enters, as they have done for every other prime minister, but the film does not dwell on this. Instead the focus is on Golda Meir’s skill as a leader and decision-maker, despite her lack of military experience, and her anguish at the war’s loss of life, losses she records day by day in a notebook.

Mirren’s Golda is a chain-smoking, flinty character with a sharp political mind and cunning skill in manipulating the men who surround her and anticipating the plans of her enemies. At the time, Golda Meir was 76 years old and suffering from cancer, something depicted in a few scenes. She was in poor physical shape, so travel to the war zone was largely not possible, which means this war-time story largely takes place in Golda Meir’s office, the hallways and bunkers where Meir and her generals discussed military actions and listened to radio reports from the two fronts.

Watching the grandmotherly figure navigate the politics of the strong male personalities in the room with a flinty strength, while making decisive, smart strategic military decisions despite her lack of soldierly training, is inspiring, and one of the highlights of Mirren’s performance. Away from the meetings, we see the more haunted and personal side of Golda.

Among the film’s best moments are when Golda Meir charms and cajoles Kissinger into providing aid for Israel, despite the Watergate scandal unfolding at the same time. They talk by phone and then Kissinger visits Israel to talk in-person with Meir. Meir feeds Kissinger borscht, and then gets to work. Schreiber’s Kissinger cautions her ” “Madame Prime Minister, in terms of our work together, I think it is important to remember I am first an American, second I am Secretary of State, and third I am a Jew.” Golda Meir replies “You forget that in Israel, we read from left to right.” It provides a rare moment of lightness and humor in the drama.

The carefully-researched film recreates the period look. While much of the drama takes place in smoke-filled rooms and half-lit hallways, Nativ captures the horror of the war with clips of archival footage and actual audience recordings of battlefield exchanges. There is also frequent use of other archival footage, including some with the real Golda Meir, and some where Mirren is inserted into the archival image. The film works hard to accurately recreate Golda Meir’s clothes, appearance and smoking, as well as the look of her office and other spaces where the story unfolds, with the help of Meir’s grandson Gideon as a consultant.

The personal side of Meir comes out mostly in her scenes with her personal assistant and friend, Lou Kaddar (French actress Camille Cottin), which are warm and sometimes depict her defiance or moments of doubt. The soundtrack is tense, often with a percussive character and metallic, strident bells. The film concludes with the perfect choice of Leonard Cohen’s song “Who By Fire,” which he wrote after visiting Israeli troops during this war.

GOLDA, in English and Hebrew with English subtitles, opens Friday, Aug. 25, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and other theaters nationally.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

GREENER PASTURES – SLJFF Review

Shlomo Bar-Aba as Dov in the Israeli comedy GREENER PASTURES. one of films at the virtual 2022 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. Courtesy of Israeli Films

In the delightfully funny Israeli comedy GREENER PASTURES, a retiree named Dov (Shlomo Bar-Aba) feels like he has been put out to pasture, and not a greener one. The widower grandpa in his 70s is dismayed that his daughter, who lives out of town, has moved him to a retirement home and out of the house he loves. A retired postal worker, he has been done out of his pension following privatization.

GREENER PASTURES is part of the 2022 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, which is virtual again this year, meaning all films can be streamed through the festival website through March 13. For tickets and more information, visit their website https://jccstl.com/arts-ideas/st-louis-jewish-film-festival.

Sure, the retirement community he’s in is nice but it’s not home and he hates it. even though he has only been there one week. Dov is determined to find a way to buy his house back, intending to move back and stay there until he dies. Dov’s grandson shows little interest but his girlfriend Dana (Joy Rieger), a lawyer, is a more sympathetic ear.

Enter the grass – that is the medicinal marjuana that all Israeli seniors are eligible to get through prescription. While pot is illegal in Israel, it is easily available to its senior citizens. Dov isn’t interested in smoking it, but he recognizes selling it could help him raise the funds to buy back his old house. A colorful old pothead, now in a wheelchair, Yehuda (Doval’e Glickman), who lives nearby, helps with getting the business rolling. A friend of Dana helps as well. Soon, Dov is well on the way to funding his plan to buy back his home, if he can just stay out of jail.

Cannabis, a nosy cop and a pair of sinister gangsters are all part of this tale of a rebellious retiree who is not content to accept what fate has dealt him.

This Israeli comedy is superbly acted, with an ensemble cast on their toes with the comic timing. Assaf Abiri and Matan Guggenheim co-wrote and co-directed this sly comedy, which has been nominated for 12 Ophirs, Israel’s version of an Oscar. Crackling comic dialog blends humor with family drama, thriller and even romance aspects, along with some social commentary, and topped by a clever twist at the end. It is a big plus that seniors are treated with respect in this comedy, as smart resourceful people and not objects of fun themselves. GREENER PASTURES uses its humor to tackles the issue of cannabis in modern Israel, as well as attitudes toward senior citizens, the impact of privatization, and even government corruption, all done with the satiric humor. GREENER PASTURES also spotlights friendships across generations and finding a second chance late in life.

The cast really makes this film. Shlomo Bar-Aba as Dov is delightfully droll, deadpanning in scene after scene. His slightly sarcastic delivery is particularly funny against the broad humor of Doval’e Glickman as Yehuda, a older wheelchair-bound rock star wannabee, whose slangy speech and kingpin posing have Dov rolling his eyes and us guffawing. By contrast the warmth that grows between Dov and his grandson’s girlfriend Dana, played with charm by Joy Rieger, is appealing, and a dash of romance is added as Dov’s relationship with the retirement home’s doctor evolves beyond the professional.

While things go smoothly in the pot biz at first, and Dov is on the way to having enough to buy back his house, a bumpier ride is in the offing when a cop starts sniffing around and a powerful gangster enters the picture. The film develops a little thriller side as the story progresses and Dov and his friends find themselves in a tight spot.

The ending puts a perfect spin on the tale. GREENER PASTURES is film filled with comic delights, snappy dialog, fine performances, with some thought-provoking subtext, and nice final twist to cap it all, making it one enjoyable film. GREENER PASTURES, in Hebrew with English subtitles, is available to stream as part of the 2022 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival through Mar. 13. For tickets and more information, visit their website https://jccstl.com/arts-ideas/st-louis-jewish-film-festival.

SUBLET (2020) – Review

June, when it’s not “bustin’ out all over” is vacation time, so break out of your rut and fly away to exotic places. Or maybe just watch someone else do that at the ole’ multiplex (yeah, not quite ready for the “far away vacay'”, myself). Yes, that “someone”, the story’s main character, truly needs to “shake things up”. He’s a middle-aged American writer who’s dealing with a “rough patch’ in his relationship. And since he writes travel articles, what better excuse for a “change of scenery”. Could he be bound for a pacific island, sipping one of those umbrella drinks as the sand squishes between his toes?. Or even south of the border, at a swanky resort. You’re not even close. His preferred sand is over in Israel. And rather than indulging in a fancy five-star hotel, he’s brokered a sweet deal on a SUBLET.

We first meet fifty-something writer Michael (John Benjamin Hickey) as his New York to Tel Aviv jet reaches its destination. A friendly cab driver zips him through the crowded city streets and deposits him at the front of a walk-up apartment in one of the “trendiest” neighborhoods. His arrival surprises the owner of the apartment that Michael has sublet for the next five days. Twenty-something aspiring filmmaker Tomer (Niv Nissim) has mixed up his dates and hurriedly tries to “straighten up” and gather a few things in order to “crash” at a friend’s place. Later Michael has a strained video chat with his partner back in the states, David (Peter Spears) before a restless night (seems he’s got to take several of the medications in his daily “pill organizer”). When Tomer returns for a few items, Michael suggests that he just stay and sleep on the couch. Over the next few days, Tomer becomes Michael’s guide to the city, exploring the bars and the beach. The elder tourist is taken aback by the young man’s strong opinions and free-wheeling lifestyle. He rejects “labels” though “sexually fluid” could apply to his nighttime proclivities. He can work up a sweat at the disco with his “movie muse”, interpretive dancer Daria (Lihi Kornowski) before sharing his bed with her. And the next night, Michael is stunned when Tomer “orders in” a hunky stud for the evening’s entertainment. Although their “generation gap” sparks many heated discussions, the two slowly begin to bond, especially after a special Israeli dinner fixed by Tomer’s mother Maika (Miki Kam) at her home in the Kibbutz. Somehow these men are forming a friendship, but could it develop into something much deeper?

Stage and screen vet Hickey brings the right amount of weary gravitas and sense of longing to his lead role as Michael. Though he could easily drift into listless melancholy he brings a real dignity to this scribe who has seen (and had) better days. Hickey seems more revitalized as the story progresses, showing us how these new locations and influences are pulling Michael out of his emotional quagmire. By the final act, he’s more participant than a remorseful observer. He’s a good contrast to the energetic “shot out of a cannon” Nissim as the swaggering hedonistic Tomer. At first caustic and abrasive, Nissim reveals his character’s growing empathy, as Michael’s kindness erodes his bravado. He’s learning to care about others, especially those who have been around a lot longer than himself. Kornowski projects an ethereal vibe as the whirling dervish dancing queen. Spears, though confined to his computer screen, draws us in as the lover who just can’t pull his partner out of the fog. And Kam offers a spirited take on her “Earth mother’ role as the welcoming matriarch.

Director Eytan Fox, working from the screenplay he co-wrote with Itay Segal, has crafted an interesting take on a subset of the romantic travel movie genre. We’ve seen countless versions of the repressed heroine acquiring a voracious appetite for life as she finds a new love (often a younger suitor) while exploring unfamiliar locales. In the golden age, it was NOW VOYAGER, SUMMERTIME, and THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE to the more recent HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK and EAT PRAY LOVE. But when it’s a male lead, the tale is mainly told for laughs as in BLAME IT ON RIO, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, and 10. The dramatic intent works for much of the film, but the final act revelations and emotional climax feel a bit forced and rushed. A sequence involving some painful whimsical improved “puppetry” is jarringly clunky. Plus Tomer’s taunting attitude never quite elevates his role beyond the fantasy, passionate exotic “object of forbidden desire”.The Tel Aviv locations are lovingly photographed by Daniel Miller, making it an often interesting travelogue. Unfortunately, none of the city’s vibrant color seeps into the perplexing bond between the two main characters. SUBLET isn’t subpar, but it’s not as engaging as it should be.

2 Out of 4

SUBLET opens in select theatres everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas beginning Friday, June 11, 2021.

THE CAKEMAKER – Review

Tim Kalkhof as Thomas in director Ophir Raul Graizer’s THE CAKEMAKER. Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing.

Israeli writer/director Ophir Raul Graizer crafts a brilliant, moving drama that touches on identity, secrets, loneliness, sexuality and grief, in the Israeli-German drama THE CAKEMAKER. The drama is in English, German and Hebrew, with English subtitles.

Israeli businessman Oren (Roy Miller) is a man living a double life., traveling monthly between Israel and Germany for his work as a city planner for an Israeli-German company. He has a wife Anat (Sarah Adler) and young son in Jerusalem and a gay lover Thomas (Tim Kalkhof), a gifted young baker, in Berlin. The quiet German baker knows from the start that Oren is married, and accepts their secret status, but Oren’s wife Anat (Sarah Adler) does not know, and according to Oren, never will. For a year, Oren visits Thomas every month or so, always taking back a box of Thomas’ cinnamon cookies for his wife. One time, Oren leaves Berlin, forgetting his keys, but he never returns or even returns Thomas’ phone messages. Eventually, Thomas learns that Oren was killed in an accident in Jerusalem.

The next time we see Thomas, he is standing on a Jerusalem street, watching Oren’s widow Anat as she shops in a large open-air market. Still mourning her husband, Anat has just re-opened her kosher cafe. Thomas comes in, but says nothing about knowing Oren or who he is. Instead, he asks her for a job, and she eventually hires him as a dishwasher, unaware of his baking skills.

THE CAKEMAKER is so good, it is hard to believe it is Graizer’s directorial debut, yet it is. The story is basically a love triangle with the third person being the lost Oren, in which both Anat and Thomas try to hold on to their lost love.

The basic structure is melodrama and there are obvious ways this story could go, but Graizer takes none of those paths. The film is restrained, delicate and nuanced, with a striking feeling of reality. The unlikely bond that grows between Anat and Thomas revolves around Oren, like both each is using the other as a substitute for him. But it is not that simple nor that obvious, and Graizer has plenty of other things to say.

There are no villains or heroes in this story, all is shades of gray and nuance. The acting is excellent, particularly by Sarah Adler as the weary, struggling widow and Tim Kalkhof as the restrained baker, who only seems truly comfortable when he is baking. The whole film is shot in a lovely, lyrical style by cinematographer Omri Aloni, which is further enhanced by an elegant, graceful piano-based score by Dominique Charpentier.

Anat’s cafe is kosher, and the presence of a non-Jewish person in the kitchen creates some problems with the kosher certification of the cafe, newly awarded by the inspector Avram (Eliezer Lipa Shimon). Anat’s brother-in-law Moti (Zohar Strauss) is also upset to find someone non-Jewish in the cafe, and a German no less. Moti complains about him being an immigrant but clearly that he is German is especially distasteful.

Director Graizer uses Thomas’ shy demeanor to make him a bit of an enigma. His motives are opaque but his baking helps make Anat’s cafe a success. The director uses the baker’s German identity and his presence as a outsider to comment on Israeli society. Thomas does not speak Hebrew and communicates in English, while the Israelis around him switch back and forth between Hebrew and English, depending on whether they want him to hear. However, Anat is unfailingly kind to him, perhaps given her husband’s work in Germany, and even invites the lonely outsider to Shabbat dinner.

Thomas arrives for dinner at Anat’s with a Black Forest cake, one of Oren’s favorites. It had been raining, and Anat gives him some dry clothes – Oren’s. At dinner, Oren’s son Itai (Tomer Ben Yehuda) puts a yarmulke on Thomas’ head, and the German listens attentively as Itai says the prayer. When it comes time for dessert, the Black Forest cake, Itai volunteers that his uncle Moti told him not to eat any of Thomas’s food. Anat gentle chides her son, and helps herself to some of the delicious cake. Later that night, Anat devours another slice of cake with relish.

The film is sprinkled with delicately moving scenes. Back in his apartment, Thomas lays out Oren’s clothes on his bed, and then puts the yarmulke back on as he looks at them, in a haunting scene. In another scene, Thomas uses the keys Oren forget last time he was in Berlin to open a locker in a swim club. Thomas takes a swim in Oren’s swim suit, an act of intimacy, and then takes home the trunks and towel.

Something else Thomas finds in the locker suggests that he was not Oren’s first gay lover. Anat seems unaware of her husband’s sexual preference but there are hints that Oren’s mother Hanna (Sandra Sadeh) knows. Hanna is remarkably kind towards Thomas, even offering to show him Oren’s old bedroom. Even Moti seems to come around to accepting the gentle, passive baker, bringing him some food his mother fixed and inviting him to his apartment for the next Shabbat, so he isn’t alone.

Food and love have been linked in films before, and THE CAKEMAKER has several lush scenes of baking that convey that link. There is a lot of about food and love in this film. That both Thomas and Anat runs cafes is significant, as well as their complementary skills as cook and baker. Oren was a person who loved to eat, as Anat tells us, but didn’t cook. Both wife and lover filled that need for him.

The director skillfully guides us through a complex maze of issues and feelings. Thomas’ shy gentleness and hidden pain means he tugs at our hearts but who he is, where he is, and what he is doing unsettles us. Graizer shows a deft hand as he navigates the fraught issue of this German in Israel, raising issues of the growing economic ties between the two contemporary countries, as unspoken memories of the Holocaust haunt us. As a German immigrant in Israel, Thomas encounters mixed reactions, but the fact that Thomas is hiding his true nature and his relationship with Oren makes the audience uneasy on top of the uneasiness created by that.

THE CAKEMAKER, in English, German and Hebrew, with English subtitles, opens Friday, August 17, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

FOXTROT (2017) – Review

Despite the title of this film’s association with the dance world, its subject is not the stuff of bouncy, bubbly musicals. It concerns the struggles and challenges faced by a military family. This was explored last year in a couple of films, most notably THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. Though sharing a similar service setting, the Middle East, this new film comes from Israel, where a stint in the military is mandatory for citizens (we learned that from the media frenzy surrounding one of last year’s biggest stars, Gal Gadot). The story bounces back from the home front to just a few hours away. Watching the drama unfold, the title makes sense. This particular dance is highly structured, with an exact number of steps which leads you right back to where you began. That’s the basics of the FOXTROT.

 

The film is structured much like a play in three acts or a short novel in three chapters. The first act unfolds on a warm day at a swank high-rise apartment building in Tel Aviv. There’s a knock on the door of the Feldmann’s unit. Daphna (Sarah Adler) opens the door and promptly faints. As her husband Michael (Lior Ashkenazi) looks on in stunned silence, three soldiers rush in to attend to Daphna. Later a doctor arrives, who instructs Michael to hydrate (setting his watch alarm to remind him on the hour), as a sedated Daphna slumbers. Why the commotion? An IDF rep confirms Michael’s fears. His son Jonathon, who has been a border guard in a remote area, has been killed. As his brother arrives to help, Michael tries to contact his daughter (it just goes to voicemail), then leaves to break the news to his dementia-addled mother, who can’t grasp the information. Eventually more IDF agents arrive to lay out plans for burial. A now agitated Michael disrupts the standard procedures as he insists on viewing his son’s body. As they try to calm him, more shocking news shatters the family. The story shifts to the second act as we meet Jonathan (Yonaton Shiray) a few days prior. Along with three other soldiers, he guards a gate on a dirt road out in the desert. The men try to keep warm and dry as they fight the effects of monotony. They take shifts sleeping in an old train car, which is slowing sinking into the mud, as they try to keep their broken down radio device working. When a driver does pull up to the gate, one soldier mans the tower spotlight as the other checks the driver’s identifications, while another looks the ID up on the computer. The men count the days till the much awaited transfer, but the boredom and routine begin to wear on them. It’s only a matter of time before a mistake is made and tragedy occurs. After witnessing its aftermath, we return to the Feldmanns for the third and final act. The actions of the first two acts have caused a crack in the marriage of Michael and Daphna. Over a meal and wine in the kitchen the two try to come together, hoping that they can be a couple once more. But is it much too late?

 

 

After doing terrific work mere weeks ago in 7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE, Ashkenazi confirms his skills in much more intimate film. This time he mutes the charms of the politicos in DAYS and last year’s NORMAN, for the more flawed, emotional Michael. In the film’s opening scenes he reacts with a befuddled numbness, as though his blood was replaced by Novocaine, while he tries to begin the work of burying his son. Very slowly that aloof demeanor gives way to frustration and fiery outrage. He’s an inferno that can’t be stilled by friends and families, only stoked by the bureaucracy. Late in the film, his Michael is still a man in pain, though he’s learned to cope well enough to function. Despite this he’s determined to win back his greatest love. Ashkenazi never strikes a false note in this superb performance. Though absent from much of the opening sequence, Adler proves to be a perfect sparring partner for him in the film’s final act. Her Daphna fails to tame the fury in Michael’s heart as he demands answers that no one offers. Later on, she struggles with her own sorrows while blocking Michael’s efforts to rekindle their romance. She knows his ticks and tricks, while pushing some familiar painful buttons to keep him off-balance. And all the while she is able to heighten her allure, even flirting as if on a first date. The bond between the two is too strong to ever be severed. As the center of the second act is their adored son Jonathon, played by Shiray as a young man just trying to work through the fatigue and return to his former life. He forms a warm, brotherly bond with the other soldiers as they joke, taunt, tease, and adapt to their dismal conditions. When the tensions finally fray, he’s consumed with despair and regret, while trying to push the memory out of his brain.

 

Director/writer Samuel Maoz has delivered a compelling story of a family in crisis told in three parts with three very distinct tones. The first, almost told entirely in the sprawling apartment, conveys the shock of loss where everyone seems to be moving at a much slower speed. As Michael awakes from his stupor it shifts into a screed against an uncaring “big brother”. The most interesting “act” may be Jonathon’s story at the border. The men trudge through mud, fiddle with frayed electronics, and consume gurgling potted meat (very unappetizing). Boredom leads one of them to roll a can across the floor each day, timing it to figure out the increasing decline of the boxcar into the mud. Before the heartbreaking tragedy, we (and the men) are given a brief respite as Jonathan relates his father’s “Last Bedtime Story”. His pen and ink illustrations are brought to life via limited animation techniques to form a moving graphic novel (though the subject may be closer to that of racy “underground comix”). This bit of whimsy heightens the horror of the nighttime “incident”. That final act is like a two-character (though another person drops in for a few moments) drama that nicely sums up the themes of the previous acts. And they do work in a bit of dancing including a lesson involving the title. For those looking for a break from the noisy studio thrillers, shuffle down to the compelling drama of FOXTROT.

 

4 Out of 5

7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE – Review

 

Though the Oscar ceremony is less than two weeks old, the studios are returning to real-life subject matter with a non-fiction flick usually released toward year’s end for awards consideration. Oh, and this true tale from nearly 42 years ago has been dramatized multiple times. It all really depends on this film maker’s take, their perspective. Big battles of WWII have been the source of several films. Just last year the story of Dunkirk was the backdrop for three films: the propaganda romance THEIR FINEST, the acclaimed Churchill profile THE DARKEST HOUR and Christopher Nolan’s same titled multi-story thriller. Now, returning to theatres is the tale of a hijacked airliner and the secret rescue of its passengers back in 1976. Shortly after the incident, the broadcast networks rushed out two dramatizations (later released theatrically overseas), “Raid on Entebbe” and “Victory at Entebbe” were multi-starred TV events that echoed the “disaster movie” formulas (with casts that included Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Lancaster, and Charles Bronson). And a year after the events, the story was made into a true feature film by the “Go-Go” boys over at Cannon Films as OPERATION: THUNDERBOLT with Klaus Kinski and Sybil Danning as two of the main hijackers (not one to leave a good plot unexploited, the same studio produced a slightly fictionalized version nine years later as THE DELTA FORCE with Lee Marvin and Cannon superstar Chuck Norris). So with over four decades passed, and more information released, will time be an ally in this very latest docudrama/ thriller, 7 DAYS IN ENTEBEE?

 

The film begins minutes prior to the fateful Air France Flight 139’s boarding in the Athens airport (after originating in Tel Aviv). Near the gate, two members of the German Revolutionary Cells, Bridgett Kuhlmann (Rosamund Pike) and Wilifred Bose (Daniel Bruhl), try to make discreet eye contact with two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-External Operations. Once the jet is in the air on the way to Paris (after that stopover in Athens), the four take out their weapons (pistols, grenades) and announce that the plane is being hijacked. Bose heads to the cockpit, sending out one crew member, as he gives the pilots part of the new flight plan. When they touch down in Libya for refueling one of the passengers who pretends to be pregnant, is released for medical attention. She contacts authorities who pass on the information. Word eventually gets to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Lior Ashkenazi) during a cabinet meeting. After the seven hour refueling, the plane lands at its ultimate destination, Uganda at Entebbe airport near an old unused terminal. There everyone is greeted by the country’s president Idi Amin (Nonzo Anozie), who supports the hijackers while assuring the passengers that he is their “hero”. The next day the hijackers issued their demands: $5 million USD for the release of the plane and the release of 53 Palestinian and pro Palestine prisoners. If the demands are not met, they threaten to begin killing the passengers in two days. Shortly after, passports are inspected and the Israelis are separated from the other hostages (who are soon taken away by buses on to other flights). Rabin meets with his security teams. When diplomatic talks with Amin break down, defense minister Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan) insists that they send in a rescue team. Despite mounting pressure to negotiate, Rabin agrees to the  mission, named “Operation: Thunderbolt”, and an elite military team begins the planning and preparation. One of the soldiers, young Benji (Ben Schnetzer) tries to calm his dancer bride (Andrea Deck), who wants him to attend an important recital, but most importantly, prays the he returns to her from the deadly assignment. And all the while temperatures climb as tensions between the hijackers mount back at the Entebbe airport terminal.

 

 

For most of the film’s first act the story centers on the two Germany-based hijackers, a duo united by a mission but with very different personalities. Pike as Kuhlmann is the more focused, perhaps the toughest of the two. Her motivations are more clear as she seems to be seeking revenge for a fallen friend. With her eyes blazing with fury, Pike is a formidable force who still lets her guard down occasionally to clumsily try to comfort a distressed child. Other times she plays the “bad cop” to Bruhl as the often wavering Bose. His reasons for joining are never really concrete. He proclaims himself an idealist, but we’re not shown via flashback how this publisher of radical tomes made this huge leap to action. In between his furious chain-smoking, Bose rankles at his PFLP superiors, and we seem him strain to convince Kuhlmann that they may have been duped, or at least kept in the dark. Bruhl conveys Bose’s disenchantment and unease at his role, especially when the Israelis are singled out. Both Pike and Bruhl relate the still fairly fresh disgust and shame over their homeland’s WWII atrocities. The story shifts in the second act to the Israeli power base, headed by the calm, contemplative Rabin, portrayed with subtlety by Ashkenazi (who were saw as an ambitious politico last year opposite Richard Gere in NORMAN). We can see him slightly struggle to keep his cool (more furious chain-smoking) as he’s bombarded by his country’s press and citizens (they even storm his offices) along with those in his cabinet. The loudest voice may be the tough-talking Peres played with pit bull tenacity by the glowering Marsan . Almost chanting “Israel does not negotiate with terrorists” as a mantra, he hovers over Rabin’s shoulder as the voice demanding action, not talk. Anozie brings an unpredictable affability to the role of Amin. At times an engaging buffoon whose fragile ego can cause him to turn, on a dime, into a vicious raging beast. Also of note is Denis Menochet as the member of the flight crew who is filled with a quiet dignity as he tempers his disgust at his captors’ cruelty. In one scene he delivers a much-needed “wake up” call to Bose, saying that sometimes the world may need plumbers and mechanics more than idealistic radicals.

 

The depiction of the first minutes of the hijacking is taut with tension with the terrorists in as much of a sweaty panic as many of the passengers. Unfortunately director Jose Padilha (the recent failed ROBOCOP re-boot) then begins to loosen the reins. The internal machinations of the Israeli cabinet is still compelling as are the plotting and rehearsals of the planned rescue. By that time the short flashbacks to the hijackers’ secret meetings in Germany have concluded without really giving us a clear look at their motivations and ultimate goals. And then Padilha and screenwriter Gregory Burke commit a narrative blunder usually foisted upon audiences of the 40’s and 50’s. The film screeches to a halt as we are introduced to the young couple, the soldier and his dancer paramour, perhaps to give the story a more personal, relatable angle. I always think back to the stateside romance that undercut the courtroom tension in THE CAINE MUTINY (Bogie going bananas is much more interesting than the two colorless lovebirds). As if that weren’t bad enough, the actual raid sequence is intercut with the dancer’s big recital, the one her elite forces beau is skipping (the rehearsal scenes weren’t distracting enough). Perhaps the film makers were making an artistic commentary, saying the Middle Eastern conflicts were a never-ending dance of destruction and death. What should be a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat finale is completely derailed, making the final act more frustrating than engaging. And these poor choices make 7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE feel like a full month.

 

2.5 Out of 5

 

SLIFF 2017 Review – THE TESTAMENT

THE TESTAMENT will screen at Plaza Frontenac Cinema (Lindbergh Blvd. and Clayton Rd, Frontenac, MO 63131) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Showings are Monday, Nov. 6 at 7pm (purchase tickets HERE) and Thursday, Nov. 9 at 2:15pm (purchase tickets HERE).

In the taut Israeli-Austrian thriller/mystery THE TESTAMENT, focuses on Dr. Yoel Halberstam (Ori Pfeffer), an Israeli historian with the Jerusalem Holocaust Institute, who is leading a high-profile court battle to preserve a site in Austria where 200 Jewish forced laborers were massacred and buried in March 1945. But the Israeli team working to preserve the site are racing a ticking clock, as the Austrian town of Lendsdorf is preparing to build on the site and is demanding proof of a mass grave before halting that plan. The problem is that witnesses are few and no one knows the exact location of the mass grave. Halberstam must find it before the deadline set by the court runs out. Unless the mass grave is found, the building plan will go ahead and the site will be obliterated.

This gripping Israeli – Austrian mystery/drama THE TESTAMENT debuted at the Venice Film Festival. Halberstam is an Orthodox Jew who lives for his work, and is known for his commitment to truth and his exacting research. But the solution to this puzzle keeps eluding him. One reason is that an earlier attempt to bring this crime to light, one made soon after the war, resulted in the assassination of one witness, and the rest have gone into hiding. While going through some classified testaments taken for that earlier investigation, Halberstam is startled to find his own mother’s name.

His mother (Rivka Gur) had always refused to talk about the war and a drive to know the truth leads Yoel to use his access to restricted files to find out more, despite the ethical questions raised. As the historian digs deeper, he discovers his mother is not who they always believed she was. The discovery is shattering for her son and the secret leads him to questions nearly everything about his life. Still, Yoel’s compulsion to find the truth has, no matter the consequences, unexpectedly brings new information and a new view of the mystery of the mass grave that might help solve the puzzle.

Director Amichai Greenberg brings a fresh look at the Holocaust by focusing on this personal story and raising questions about identity. The mystery is tense and well-paced, and woven in well with an exploration of matters of identity, secrets buried in wartime, and lingering fears of survivors who are forever marked by their experience. The photography is striking, often visually beautiful, and the film contrasts modern architecture of locations against a mystery about the past. The contrasts between the past and present world course through this exploration of truth and identity.

Yoel’s focus on his work and even his Orthodox faith have narrowed his view of life and even his awareness of the modern world. Known for his passion for the truth, Yoel has devoted his life to his work, neglecting his family to the point that his wife divorced him. Yoel lives with his elderly mother and his married sister who chides him for his neglect of his personal life. The historian struggles to make time to help his son prepare for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah but has trouble connecting with the boy.

The acting is superb in this thought-provoking drama. Pfeffer does as excellent job as Yoel, wrestling with his conflicted feelings and with the mental puzzle of the mystery that confronts him. Yoel’s mother Fanya, played well by Rivka Gur, dodges her son’s questions about the war, mostly by simply ignoring them. She’s in poor health which makes pressing her difficult, and Yoel’s frustration is palpable.

His discovery about his mother brings into question his assumptions about his own identity and causes him to reassess his personal life. While the personal crisis sends him reeling, he ultimately must re-focuses on the task at hand.

THE TESTAMENT is an intriguing mystery and a different kind of Holocaust tale, as well as a thoughtful exploration of the nature of identity.

 

PAST LIFE – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival Review

Tuesday, June 6, at 1 PM, Plaza Frontenac Cinema

Israel; in Hebrew, English, German, and Polish with English subtitles; 110 minutes

Two sisters uncover their father’s secret past in the true story-based Israeli mystery PAST LIFE, one of the films playing as part of the annual St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. The film is also set to return to the Plaza Frontenac Cinema on June 9 for a longer theatrical run.

The film is an intriguing look into Israel in the late 1970s, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and crumbling of European communism, when many survivors of the Holocaust did not speak about their wartime experiences as they focused on building their young nation.

In 1977, young Sephi Milch (Joy Rieger), an Israeli music student with a lovely soprano voice but ambitions to be a composer, travels to West Berlin for a concert with her school choir. After the concert, an elderly woman (Katarzyna Gniewkowska) runs up to her and, speaking in Polish, loudly accuses Sephi’s father of murder. Sephi is both rattled and mystified by the incident, despite an apology from the woman’s son, a renowned German composer (Rafael Stachowiak) who had attended the concert.

Back in Israel, Sephi wants to put the unsettling event behind her but her older sister Nana (Nelly Tagar) senses something is wrong. Shy Sephi reluctantly tells her about the incident but makes her bolder, older sister promise to say nothing to their stern, demanding father or emotional, sensitive mother (Evgenia Dodina). Dr. Baruch Milch (Doron Tavory) is a successful gynecologist but, like many Holocaust survivors in Israel, he had never talked to his daughters about his past. Nana is a rebellious young woman, a budding journalist who resents her father for his harsh treatment of her as a child. She tackles the mystery, bent on uncovering the truth about their father’s wartime experiences. But what the sisters uncover is a mystery that just keeps getting deeper and more complex the further they dig.

Atmospheric, tense and moving, PAST LIFE is directed by award-winning Israeli writer/director Avi Nesher, who has indicated that the film is the first of three films in a series. The son of Holocaust survivors himself, Nesher based his script on the wartime diaries of Dr. Baruch Milch, “Can Heaven Be Void?”

The twisty mystery is indeed intriguing, taking the sisters and the audience down a rabbit hole of secrets. The younger sister wants to dismiss what was said to her but the older sister embraces the idea of their father’s violent past. What they uncover if far different from what either expect.

In the film, the sisters could not be more different. Quiet, shy, obedient Sephi focuses her entire life on her music, struggling with her dreams to be a composer while her teachers dismiss that idea and tell her to focus on singing. Nana is loud, defiant, at times outrageous, and frustrated in her ambition to do real journalism, while stuck in a job at a tawdry, low-rent newspaper. Sephi still lives at home with her parents but Nana is married, although she does not always get along with her less-ambitious husband. Yet the sister grow  closer as the mystery unfolds. Family dynamics are part of this story, as well as women’s career ambitions, and the lingering post-war human trauma, in this historic tale.

Nesher brilliantly builds suspense, and the fine cast bring out layers of character, that deepening the moving story. That cast also includes Evgenia Dodina, a well-known Israeli star, as the sisters’ nervous mother, but the strong performances by Rieger and Tagar as the two sisters are the center around which this winding-path story is wrapped.

The film is shot in a visually rich style, that adds to the dramatic effect. Music plays a central role in this film, and the moving music choices, a mix of classical and pop, frame the edge-of-your-seat story brilliantly. The soundtrack features original music by classical composer Ella Milch-Sheriff, the real daughter of Dr. Milch on whom the Sephi character is based. Films described as “based on true events” can diverge widely from facts but Nesher makes an effort to stick closely to the real events.

PAST LIFE is a polished and haunting drama that keeps the audience hooked with its suspenseful plot, affecting performances led by two strong female leads, and a heart-wrenching true story.