Checkout -- A New Spy Movie

Checkout, directed by Jonathan Dekel, is a spoof on a spy thriller.  Our hero, Dov, is an American who has become a Mossad agent, and as he is retiring soon, he is hanging around a hotel in Istanbul.  Surprisingly, a hardened terrorist checks in with his girlfriend.  After Dov fingers the terrorist, he is supposed to step aside and let the experienced operatives take over.  But he is looking for a last hurrah, and he gets involved in the dirty field world.  Needless to say, thereby ensues a lot of over-the-top scenes of bumbling idiots falling over each other!

It is interesting to note that it becomes apparent that the Mossad agents have a lonely life.  It is sad to see that Dov has a daughter, back home in Israel, who resents his work and his constant travel. Also, he is unable to pursue a romantic attraction due to his line of work.

The narrative structure of the film is what is so striking.  As Dov has been called in by a commission of inquiry, we watch as members of the commission follow him around as he is retelling and re-enacting the whole story.  It makes for great side comments and comic relief.

The film can’t quite decide if it is a thriller or a farce.  Does it do either one well?  Not so sure.

Checkout (2024) is distributed by Go2Films.

 

Trust No One - a new Israeli TV series on Netflix

 A new Israeli TV series has become available on Netflix this past week.  Trust No One (הראש) is a suspenseful spy thriller about the functioning of Israel’s General Security Services agency, better known as the Shin Bet.  The series was created by Ron Leshem, Amit Cohen, Daniel Amsel and directed by Ofir Lobel and was produced for Keshet (one of the major Israeli television networks) by Shenhar Productions.

The series focuses on a fictional head of the Shin Bet, Itamar Molcho (played by Yehuda Levi), his family, his elite team of top-level associates whom he trusts with his life, and the operatives/assets/informants that they run in Gaza.  When someone dumps files on the internet about their operatives (in Wiki-leaks style), everyone must rush to first, save the lives of the operatives who have now been exposed, and second, search out the mole who has been leaking their top-secret information to the internet.  Add to this lots of illegal shenanigans, lots of sexual tension, and complications that keep leaving the viewer wanting more. Needless to say, everyone has secrets to hide, and you cannot keep up with the array of suspects!

The main storyline centers around Shuruk, the daughter of a Hamas Sheikh in Gaza, who is a Shin Ben operative. We recognize here that this is based on a true story from the 1990s -- the son of a founder of Hamas, Moab Hassan Yousef, became a spy for the Shin Bet in a high profile story. Another part of the story that is based on real life -- the Head of the Shin Bet is having his reputation and career questioned by the Prime Minister. We are all mindful that there has been a current controversy between the Head of the Shin Bet and the Prime Minister of Israel, which makes this series highly relevant.

I loved this series, but there is a major element which I found troublesome. The series  was produced before October 7th, but it is all about information gathering in the Gaza Strip. If the drones, cameras, and cyber specialists at the Shin Bet, as portrayed in this dramatic series, provide Israel with so much knowledge of what is going on in Gaza on a regular basis, then how did the October 7^th disaster occur without serious intelligence warnings?

Nevertheless, Trust No One is a great series, a thriller with lots of twists and turns. So well-made and highly recommended!

Trust No One (TV series, 9 episodes, 2025) is currently streaming on Keshet or on Netflix.

A Portrait of Two Cultural Icons - Mother and Daughter - Hannah Rovina and Ilana Rovina

 I just had a chance to view a wonderful documentary, The Rovina Legacy, which is the story of the Rovina women -- Hannah Rovina, her daughter Ilana Rovina, and the third generation, Maya Weissman. The film, directed by Sigal Rosh, especially provides a portrait of two cultural icons, using family photos, Habima and TV archival footage, and interviews. I thoroughly enjoyed the history and nostalgia provided here.  I am also proud to have been on the committee of the Gesher Multi-Cultural Film Fund, which supported the production of this film.

Hannah Rovina (1888-1980) was a magnificent star of the stage, and a founding member of the Habima Theater since its inception in Moscow and then as it became the National Theater of Israel. She was a legendary figure with great stage presence, who appeared in multiple roles over the years and was awarded the Israel Prize for her contribution to Israeli theater. 

Rovina was born to a religious family in Russia.  They were shocked when she decided to become an actress during those early years.  She starred in the iconic 1932 film Sabra, shot in Palestine, and starred in the original stage version of The Dybbuk as the possessed girl, Leah. Rovina recalls that she played as many as 12 roles as the Jewish mother in plays such as The Eternal Jew, Mirele Efros, Mother Courage, and others.

But she, herself, was not a great mother. At the age of 45 and as the result of a brief love affair with the intriguing poet, Alexander Penn, Rovina gave birth to her daughter Ilana (1934-2020), who became a celebrated singer. Because her mother was too busy to care for her, Ilana was sent to a foster family in Jerusalem for a few years, and then to Kibbutz Geva where she virtually grew up.

Ilana started out her career with a small acting part in the 1962 film, I Like Mike, but was certain that she did not want to pursue a career as an actress.  After studying opera in Milan, she went on to become a singer. She sang with Arik Einstein, was married to Uri Zohar for a short time, and appeared together with Zohar in his famous skit Green Onion. She is well-known for her performance in the Hassidic Song Festival and her entry, Yivereh-checha השם מציון יברכך, which became a big hit.  During the Yom Kippur War, she toured and sang for the troops with Leonard Cohen and Matti Caspi. 

Much of the family story is told by Maya, the third generation, who is very humble in the face of what her mother and grandmother achieved.

This is a story of mothers and daughters, the love that they share, the strength that they embody, the difficult choices made in their personal lives, and the sacrifices that fame often necessitates.

While telling a personal story, The Rovina Legacy (documentary, 2025, 74 minutes) offers a glimpse into a fascinating chapter of Israeli cultural history.  It was produced by Pardes Films and is available from one of the producers, Itay Morag at moragitay@gmail.com.

Homosexuality within the Haredi community

 Pink Lady, directed by Nir Bergman, is a new Israeli feature film, currently playing in movie theaters in Israel.  It is a touching, intimate and tragic portrayal of married life within the Haredi community. 

It is also a film about homosexuality.  Homosexuality within this community is still considered deviant behavior and therefore, I felt it was like watching something from a completely different anthropological setting! 

This is not the first film about homosexuality within the Haredi community, but it is the first in which we experience the point of view of the woman who feels trapped in a marriage that just isn’t working.

On the background of the alleyways of Jerusalem, we meet Bati and Lazar, who are apparently happily married with three children under the age of 8.  Bati discovers that Lazar is being blackmailed for large sums of money because of his intimate behavior with his yeshiva study partner.  The next hard-hitting realization is that her husband is not so interested in her sexually. Even though Bati believes strongly in the power of prayer and the possibility of God intervening and changing her husband’s behavior, there is nothing wrong in trying to take matters in your own hands.  With the help of a less religious friend who she meets at the mikveh where she works, Bati decides to try shopping for alluring intimate apparel.  Slowly, Bati acquires more understanding and undergoes self-discovery.

The scenes between all the women, where they talk in hushed whispers about their marital and sexual problems, are fascinating.  They speak in euphemisms, but they are startingly forthright, concerned, and open with each other.

Nir Bergman makes wonderful films about people, their emotions, their problems, and their relationships.  He is well-known for BrokenWings, Saving Neta, Here We Are, Intimate Grammar, and In Treatment (script).

Pink Lady is available from Go2Films.

Watch thetrailer here.

 

Reading Lolita in Tehran, a new film by Eran Riklis

 Last night, I had the opportunity to attend the Jerusalem premiere screening of Reading Lolita in Tehran, directed by Eran Riklis, based on the best-selling memoir of the same name by Azar Nafisi (published in 2003 and translated into 32 languages). 

Eran Riklis is one of Israel’s most prominent filmmakers. He has made multiple award-winning political films – Cup Final, Zaytun, Syrian Bride, Shelter,Lemon Tree, Dancing Arabs, Human Resources Manager -- all previously reviewed on this blog.

Reading Lolita in Tehran is an extraordinary portrayal of life in Iran during the period following the Islamic Revolution.  The film is sensitive and complex, and the characters are compelling. The story centers on the oppression of women, the banning of Western classics, and the under-lying tension of living with the fear of the knock on the door.

Our main character is the character of Azar Nafisi, herself.  Eran Riklis is obviously attracted to defiant, politically conscious Middle Eastern women – as we have seen previously in Lemon Tree, Shelter, Syrian Bride. Here, Azar is a professor of English literature at the university in Tehran, having recently returned home from America with her husband, both of them optimistic about the possibility of a new life in post-revolutionary Iran.

According to a review by Arash Azizi in The Atlantic, Nafisi’s “book isn’t just about reading and teaching literature under a repressive regime, but about how literature in and of itself could serve as an antidote to all that the regime stood for.” After the crackdown on books and foreign studies, and the oppression of women becomes insufferable, Azar begins to hold a class in her living room for a small group of her female students.  That underground group becomes the center of the film’s story. They talk about literature, about the books’ characters and how they represent things in their own lives. They discuss whether or not their lives could be better elsewhere. They talk about their husbands and their petty jealousies. They console each other and understand each other in a way no man could possibly understand.

According to the filmmaker (who spoke at the  screening last night,) making this film appear authentic was a particular challenge and he decided to use all Iranian actresses (obviously all of them are living abroad). Golshifteh Farahani, who plays Azar, for example, was told to leave Iran in 2008, after a part she played in a controversial film. Perhaps remarkable in itself, all seven of the actresses playing the women in the study group which met in Azar’s living room, attended the world premiere screening at the Rome Film Festival in 2024.

Only a few years after protests rocked Iran under the title “Women, Life, Freedom,” this film provides viewers with an insider’s look at the complexity of life in Iran, especially with regard to  the oppression of women and the resistance of some women to this phenomenon.   It also reminds us all of what it is like to live in an extremely repressive society.

When asked why he made this film as an Israeli film director, Riklis told the audience that he did so as any film director would choose to examine universal human issues.

Watch herethe film’s trailer.

Reading Lolita in Tehran is now playing at cinemas throughout Israel. (The film speaks English and Parsi, with Hebrew subtitles.) 

No Other Land - Academy Award winner for best feature-length documentary

Although No Other Land won the Academy Award for best documentary feature-length film, it is almost impossible to view it in Israel.  I took advantage of the fact that I was visiting in New York and went to the Film Forum on W. Houston St. to see the film last week.

No Other Land (documentary, 2024, 95 minutes) was directed by two Palestinian filmmakers: Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, and two Jewish Israeli filmmakers: Yuval Avraham and Rachel Szor. This is a hard-hitting award-winning film about the oppressive and cruel nature of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.  The story takes place in Masafer Yatta, an area of 20 hamlets spread around the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank, not far from the Jewish settlement of Sussiya.

The film opens with Basel, one of the film directors, a Palestinian activist in his mid-20s, remembering back to when he was about 5-years-old and his father, Nasser, also an activist, was arrested for the first time.  Basel’s father owns a gas station, which is really just one gas pump, and he supports his family from the cars that stop by and fill up. 

They are battling the Israeli military for rights to stay on their land, where they have lived for more than one hundred years.  The Israeli army has decided to prevent the Palestinians of the area from living here, claiming that they need this area for an active military training zone, and they are enforcing a systematic destruction of entire villages.  Periodically, enormous bulldozers arrive to destroy homes. Imagine the trauma for the children standing by watching as their homes are demolished. These people are not primitive cave-dwellers, but after a village is destroyed, we see that the families have no other choice but to retreat and set up home in nearby caves.

Yuval is an Israeli journalist who grew up in Beersheba. He comes to cover the story, becomes emotionally involved in what’s happening and builds a strong attachment to the place, the people, and a real friendship with Basel.

The major part of the film tells the story of Basel’s activism, rooted in his father’s activism, how he uses social media, organizes protests, and tries so hard to protect their homes and villages.

Because the Palestinians persevere and continually rebuild, the military comes to confiscate their tools and their generator.  A scuffle ensues and Harun is shot.  The mother of Harun is a particularly compelling character who is forced to care for her paralyzed son. Her raw pain is palatable as she gives voice to her hope that her son will die peacefully and no longer suffer.

As things escalate, the military also begins to destroy the local school, pours concrete into a water well, and cuts irrigation infrastructure.  Eventually the nearby settlers from Sussiya join in the fray and arrive on a regular basis to terrorize the local population.

Even though the film refrains from telling many of the personal stories of the people suffering under this military oppression, it is still a harrowing story to watch.  Not exactly a fun night out! Perhaps continuing to deny the cruelty of the occupation and settler violence would be easier.  After viewing this film, I feel that it may mobilize more people to help Basel and the people of Masafer Yatta obtain the basic human rights of living on their own land with access to schools and water.

At the Academy Awards, the filmmakers Basel Adra, a Palestinian, and Yuval Avraham, an Israeli, spoke: “My hope to my daughter, that she will not have to live the same life I am living now,” Adra said. And from Avraham: “We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger, we see each other,” adding, “There is a different path… can’t you see that our future is intertwined. There is no other way.”

Watch the trailer here.

 

 

 

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