A Film about Shellshock is Particularly Relevant Today

Last week, I had the opportunity to view the documentary film, 50 Broken Pieces, directed by Micha Amitai, produced and co-edited by Aner Preminger.  The film was screened at an event at Hebrew University in honor of Aner Preminger who is retiring from his faculty post after 30 years in academia.  In addition to his work teaching, Preminger is also well-known for his feature films -- Blind Man’s Bluff and Present Continuous – both of which have been reviewed on this blog.

In his remarks, Preminger spoke about how this latest film was conceived.  In 2017, Micha Amitai was a film student at Sapir College, and he proposed the idea of this film as a student project and it developed into a full film and a successful partnership.

Although 50 Broken Pieces was produced in 2022, it is particularly relevant today, especially since so many Israeli soldiers are once again suffering from emotional problems, as a result of the current long war. This film is about the pain, loneliness, and memories of post trauma stress disorder (PTSD).   It is also about the unique friendship that develops between two men who have both experienced trauma.

The filmmaker has chosen to focus his film on Meir, who still has terrible guilt over not having been able to prevent the multiple deaths that resulted from a terrorist bombing, which took place in 1995 on a bus carrying soldiers and civilians, on its way to Kfar Darom, a former settlement in the Gaza Strip.

Today, Meir lives in Sderot with Nadia and his dog.  His everyday life is a constant struggle for a normal balancedd life.  He divides his time between a part-time job fire-guarding on top of a watchtower, and his therapeutic work creating wood sculptures from the stumps of old trees and writing stunningly beautiful and meaningful poetry.  For example, he writes about matches as a metaphor, all lined up in a box, with burnt heads. Meir talks about the nightmares, the trauma, and the guilt.

Amitai, the filmmaker, is also the photographer, scriptwriter, narrator, and is in dialogue with Meir during the film.  He also exposes his own story – as an Airforce helicopter pilot in 2010, he planned a training exercise in which there was a terrible air crash. 

A friendship develops between Meir and Amitai and they seem to find a way through their traumas together.  It seems to me that the making of the film is a therapeutic activity for both of them.

50 Broken Pieces is a strikingly moving documentary film (70 minutes, 2022) which provides a portrayal of two men in crisis and offers us a glimpse into how shellshock can affect a person’s life.  In the post-October 7^th, 2023 period, we must learn together to talk more openly about such terrible effects of war and trauma. 

The film is distributed by Aner Preminger at anerp@zahav.net.il

 

Cabaret Total is a hard-hitting anti-establishment war-weary film

I just returned from the Haifa Film Festival, where I had the opportunity to view a strong political film, Cabaret Total, מופע טוטאל, directed and starring Roy Assaf.  It is a film about freedom of speech, about corrupt politicians, and about not permitting yourself the luxury of hiding your head in the sand. Most of all, it is about the capacity of theater, specifically cabaret, to offer a form of critical social and political expression.  The filmmaker/lead actor, Roy Assaf, is a tremendously talented entertainer, appearing in just about every scene in the film. 

Assi is a combat soldier, just returning home from miluim (reserve duty).  Still in uniform, we watch him returning to the town in the desert where he lives with his wife, two children, and his parents.  Obviously somewhat disturbed by his recent experiences, he is imagining the sounds of war, the strafing and the bombs. It is apparent that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as do many Israeli soldiers when they come back from the wars.

Assi performs in a cabaret at the local community center, where they do talented and biting skits. He is also the drama teacher in the local high school, helping the seniors rehearse their concluding year play.  In a moment of tension, he shouts at his students that war isn’t so wonderful, in fact, if given the chance to do it over again, he wouldn’t want to do army service. This incident goes viral and he is dissed on social media and dismissed from his teaching job. Matters continue to spiral out of hand.

The issue of freedom of speech is particularly relevant in today’s Israel. Not only does the Ministry of Education try to control what teachers can and cannot say in the classroom, but other ministers and their staffs are watching people who say anything that is too critical of government policy, especially with regard to the current war in Gaza.  Also, social media is playing a negative role, which can lead to the shaming of anyone who expresses criticism of what is going on.

Notwithstanding the fact that the filmmaker talked about how it took him about seven years to make this film, I felt that this was the first anti-establishment, war-weary film to come out post October 7^th, 2023. It reflects a certain anger on the part of Israelis who are getting tired of fighting a corrupt government and fighting a forever war. In fact, in the press in Israel lately, there is more and more being written of soldiers dying in vain in an endless war, with no exit strategy.

Cabaret Total concludes with a fantastic scene reminiscent of Frederico Fellini’s masterpiece, 8 ½, with the parade of clown characters. This seems to be a nod to the absurdity of our current situation, in which theater can help us understand deeply some of the profound dilemmas with which we live and with which we struggle all the time.

 

 

 

Combining Humor with Holocaust Memory - a new film by Adir Miller

The Ring is a new film by Adir Miller, directed by Doron Paz, Yoav Paz and Adir Miller, inspired by true World War II stories, and written by Adir Miller. Miller is known to Israeli audiences as both a stand-up comedian and a film actor (especially in films by the famous Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher).

This is a semi-comic melodrama about a father-daughter relationship and also about Holocaust memory.

Arnon (played by Miller) is an observant Jew, making a living as a driving teacher.  He is estranged from his lesbian daughter, Alma, because he does not approve of her lifestyle. His mother, a survivor, would often go to high schools to tell the story of how she was saved by an Iron Cross Hungarian soldier. On the day of major deportations from Budapest, she was carrying her baby boy, running in the street.  When there was a diversion, she took the opportunity to rip off her yellow star and to disappear out of sight.  One enterprising Hungarian soldier followed her, but she begged for her life and the life of her baby, and gave him her gold ring, telling him that after the war it would be his proof that he saved a Jewish woman. Now, more than 50 years later, Arnon’s mother is very ill in the hospital, and he requests Alma’s assistance in traveling with him to Budapest to search for the ring that saved his mother so long ago.

So, they embark on a very special journey to Budapest. On their trip, they encounter a fair amount of anti-Semitism but they also discover people who are willing to help them.  It is a roller coaster ride from the point of view of their relationship.  As part of this journey down memory lane, we encounter many scenes of Holocaust events – a re-enactment of people being shot into the Danube River and leaving their shoes on the water’s edge, and a contemporary conference of people trying to confer status of Righteous Among the Nations on Hungarian heroes,

One of the qualities that makes this film unique is Miller’s use of humor, including black humor at times.  This helps the characters in the film – and us the viewers—deal with some of the very difficult issues that the film raises.

The film includes many sentimental scenes, including one in which Miller expounds on the importance of Holocaust remembrance for future generations. This is the message of the film – it is still vital to tell the stories of our people who perished in the Holocaust and to never forget them.

A Roots Trip to Poland Delivers More than One Might have Expected

The Property (הנכס), billed as a film by the Modan sisters -- a debut film by Dana Modan, based on the graphic novel (published in 2013) by her sister, Rutu Modan -- is currently playing in movie theaters in Israel.

This is a charming film about modern-day Israeli Jews and their relationship to contemporary Poland and Poles.  The story revolves around two women – an aging grandmother, Regina, memorably played by the famous veteran actress Rivka Michaeli, and her granddaughter, Mika – who make a trip to Warsaw.  (The film is almost entirely shot abroad, either in Poland or in Georgia.)

Back in the 1930s, Regina, then a 15-year-old pregnant girl, was forced by her parents to quickly marry a Jewish boy and leave Warsaw for Palestine. Obviously, this saved her life.  Now, for the first time, she is returning to Poland, not so much to confront or explore her Polish roots, but rather to seek out the local boy who was her lover so long ago. 

The story revolves around a family apartment where Regina and her family lived, before the war.  Today, she discovers, the apartment functions as a small restaurant. But among the tables and chairs, Regina finds much more than she anticipated.  Meanwhile, Mika is tracking down a lawyer who might be able to help them in their attempt to regain possession of the apartment.  Along the way, she is befriended by a non-Jewish tour-guide who specializes in tours of the Ghetto. 

There are plentiful references to the Holocaust, but there are no scenes of terrible trauma.  The Holocaust references are contemporary ones – the Israeli high school kids who are so poorly behaved on the airplane on their way to Poland where they will visit lots of concentration camps; issues of how post-war Poland deals with properties that belonged to Jews; and maybe the best scene of all – a non-Jewish woman whose work entails rebuilding Jewish and Holocaust memory for tourism who exclaims “I just love the ghetto!”

There are hints of a possible Polish-Jewish Israeli reconciliation—it was possible for a Pole and a Jew to be in love once, it is possible again, and maybe the Polish people and the Jewish people can somehow learn to live together.

The Property is a film that includes a bit of romance, some nostalgia, a lot of humor and an array of quirky characters. It is highly recommended! Available from Go2Films.

  

The Story of the Massacre at the Roadside Shelter on October 7, 2023

The Last Recording (Hebrew title: Death Shelter: The Last Recording), by Assaf Liberman and Nadav Ben Zur, is about a terrible massacre that occurred at a roadside shelter near Kibbutz Re’im on that terrible day, October 7^th, 2023.  A number of young adults in their 20s who had been at the Nova music festival, fleeing for their lives, took refuge in this shelter.  Of the 40 or 50 who took refuge there, only 11 survived, of whom 4 were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. 

Viewers consider yourselves warned -- the film is shocking and difficult to watch.  It is based on a cellphone recording made by Ayelet, who was killed that day.  The sounds, the whisperings, the shooting are all authentic and so hard-hitting.  There is also visual footage of the young people all huddled together, all so very real.  The film includes interviews with the survivors, telling the story of what happened that day, and with the parents of those who were so brutally murdered.  The interviews are conducted, in an extremely sensitive manner, by Assaf Liberman, a radio talk show host for Reshet Bet.

Osama, a Bedouin man from the Negev who was working on the security team for the Nova festival, was trapped in the shelter with the others.  When he stepped out to try to reason with the terrorists, he was grabbed and killed. 

Here is the story that so many people have heard – the terrorists threw grenades into the shelter and Aner, who loved the dancing and was a soldier, bravely kept picking them up and throwing them back out.  He was a true hero.  The footage of the goings-on outside the shelter is from a dashcam, also so very real and authentic. From that footage we can see the grenades exploding outside.  Eventually, the terrorists threw a grenade deep inside and some people, including Aner, were killed.  This is when Hersh Goldberg-Polin lost his hand.  Then the terrorists grabbed four of the people inside and took them away as hostages.  Hersh was one of them (only to be executed later by the terrorists while in captivity).  Also, Alon, who loved to play piano, was taken hostage. 

Finally, the terrorists came back in and shot at everyone, just to be sure. 

The survivors, beautiful young people, today are dealing with the trauma of what they experienced and the fact that they survived. They laid there that day for hours, wounded and traumatized, weeping, waiting for help, waiting to be rescued.

The Last Recording (documentary, 60 minutes) is available from Go2Films. 

The Nova Rave

 I was very badly affected by the latest news.  Yesterday was the day that Shirel Golan committed suicide on her 22^nd birthday.  She was a survivor of the Nova festival and she had been suffering from post trauma. Even though I had been putting off watching the film about the Nova festival, I decided that this was the time to pay proper honor to those who died there and those who survived.

We Will Dance Again, directed by Yariv Mozer, is a highly effective and emotional documentary film which describes the trance festival that took place on Simchat Torah, Friday night, October 6^th, 2023. It portrays an event which was full of energy and full of life.  The festival was produced by a company from Brazil and the DJs came from all over the world. More than 3,500 young people attended in the fields outside of Kibbutz Re’im.  The next morning, October 7^th, about 400 of them were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists.

Some of them were artists, some were models ,others were university students, song writers, production staff. All of them were wonderful young adults who enjoyed dancing, loved to be together and celebrate life!  As the sun rose on the morning of October 7^th, they were hit by an attack of extreme evil, and their lives changed forever.  There were rockets everywhere, explosions, sirens, screaming, barrages of rockets, people running, nobody knowing what was happening.  The footage is comprised entirely of cellphone footage and Hamas body cams and even Hamas propaganda footage.  We watch as the bulldozers broke through the border fence in 60 different locations.

The young people tell stories of how they hid in the portable toilets, in refrigerated equipment, in garbage containers.  They were fleeing through the fields, watching their friends being slaughtered around them, bullets whizzing by, hiding in roadside shelters. 

The stories are so emotional.  In one roadside shelter, a local Bedouin goes out to talk to the terrorists and he is murdered right away.  Hersh Goldberg-Polin is in there with his friend Aner Shapiro.  The terrorists throw in a grenade and Aner picks it up and throws it back.  This happens a few times, until finally a grenade explodes inside. Hersh loses his hand and Aner is killed. We all know the story of Hersh, who is kidnapped and later executed by the Hamas in one of their underground tunnels.

The survivors offer their testimonies against the up-close footage from cellphones of friends being slaughtered around them.  The survivors wonder what was happening to their families, thinking that perhaps the entire country was under siege, watching as their friends were kidnapped.  Hours go by and the police and the army don’t come.  There are burnt out cars and the piles of bodies are mounting up.

This is the story of close to 400 murdered, 44 kidnapped, hundreds wounded, and hundreds living with PTSD. This film provides the victims with individual names.  We hear the story of Shani Louk who was kidnapped and later murdered.  Eliyah Cohen who was taken hostage.  Ron Weinberg who was a tech genius and was killed.  And so many more – David Yair Shalom Newman, Gili, Shaked, Avraham, Uria, Forti, Ruth Peretz and her father Erick, Keshet, Sivan, Maayan, and so many more…

We Will Dance Again (90 minutes, documentary) is an extremely hard-hitting documentary film, which tells a story that needs to be told – a tale of those who were murdered, those who were taken hostage, and those who survived -- not a film for the light-hearted.  The film is available from Go2Films.

Late Summer Blues Director Renen Schorr Creates a Personal Memoir

Wake Up, Grandson – Letters to My Rebellious Rabbi (המעורר) is a documentary film, directed and written by Renen Schorr Heller.  Renen Schorr is well-known in Israel for two major achievements – he directed the iconic 1986 film, Late Summer Blues, and he was the founding director of the Sam Spiegel Film and TV School in Jerusalem, which now sits in one of four buildings in a major impressive cultural complex in downtown Jerusalem.  Schorr served for 30 years in that position from 1989 to 2018.

 In this sophisticated documentary film, he has combined three elements -- a personal memoir, the story of the state of Israel (since its establishment in 1948), and the story of his grandfather who had a profound impact on his life.  In so doing, he combines documentary footage, family movies and stills, and even some re-enactments. The results are a fabulous interweaving, with superb editing and excellent cinematography (particularly of Jerusalem and Safed).

Schorr’s grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Zeida Heller, was an orthodox rabbi, fourth generation in Safed. In fact, his own grandfather had been the chief rabbi of Safed in the early 19^th century!  Rabbi Avraham Zeida Heller was the head of a Safed yeshivah during the War of Independence and was known for believing in both the importance of prayer and military defense.  He is quoted in the film as saying: “It is important to recite Psalms, but the miracle was when the Palmach arrived!” He was married with five daughters, one of whom was the mother of Renen Schorr. 

The film is centered around many years of an exchange of letters between the grandfather and the grandson.  The elder is forever begging his grandson (in literary Hebrew) to give up his love of Truffaut and to follow the path of Uri Zohar, to carry on the Jewish tradition. [Uri Zohar, who was a hero to Schorr in his early years of filmmaking in the 1970s, was a famous Israeli filmmaker who gave up film for a life as an ultra-orthodox rabbi.]

In this poignantly personal film, Schorr portrays his growing up, his living through the War of Attrition with Egypt (1969-1970), army life, his service as a war correspondent, the horrors of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, his gradual falling in love with the field of cinema and his profession as a teacher and filmmaker.  The descriptions of the hardships of producing a full-length feature film as a young artist were eye-opening.  Moreover, the footage that he found and used in the film was stupendous, including footage from Late Summer Blues itself. This famous film was well-known in Israel for its satirical criticism of the War of Attrition with Egypt. The screenplay raised many critical questions about the goals and futility of war, which are particularly relevant for our current situation in Israel today, when we are fighting two wars of attrition.

In 1989, Schorr was chosen by Teddy Kollek, the popular mayor of Jerusalem, to head a new film school which was being established at that time.  Schorr had to contend with the obstacle of drawing secular film students away from Tel Aviv and bringing them to Jerusalem.

The film reveals the tensions in Israeli society between the religious and secular, between the film world of Tel Aviv and the dreams of Teddy Kollek for Jerusalem, between the holiness of Safed and the hedonism of Tel Aviv. 

Schorr’s grandfather lived well into his 90’s and a final request is sent to his grandson – make a movie about me.  Towards the end of the film, Schorr changes his name officially to Renen Schorr Heller, as a beautiful way of memorializing his grandfather, and he undertakes to direct a scene which was written by his grandfather and which takes place at the turn of the 20^th century in Safed. 

Wake Up, Grandson is an extraordinary documentary film (93 minutes) – beautifully conceived, with great pacing, which combines the personal and the national in an  effortless way.

The film is available from Go2Films.