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 7th,
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
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