Next month we will be marking the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It is interesting that not many feature films (except for Amos Gitai’s Kippur) were made about this war. The war in Lebanon, in contrast, had the honor of having a plethora of films made on the subject. Perhaps this is because the Yom Kippur War was a trauma in our past and filmmakers were unsure about dealing with the sacred cows of heroism and martyrdom on the background of such trauma. This year, however, we have two important films that deal with that time. The first is the international feature film, Golda, starring Helen Mirren and directed by Guy Nattiv. The second is The Stronghold (המזח), directed and written by Lior Chefetz, about heroism and surrender, on the background of the Yom Kippur War.
The Stronghold is based on a true story, inspired by a book by Dr Nahum Werbin, about soldiers during the Yom Kippur War who fell into the hands of the Egyptians, and after 40 days in captivity were eventually returned to Israel in a prisoner exchange. Dr. Werbin became a well-known surgeon at Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv. In this story, based on true events which took place at a desolate outpost on the famous “Bar Lev line”, the soldiers, under surprise attack, are forced to decide whether to follow the leadership of their young and idealistic commander or whether to listen to the more level-headed doctor who is doing reserve duty at their outpost. This results in a test of their deepest values.
The story moves forward and backward in time – therefore there are no spoilers -- switching between the war and events that followed it, including the captivity, the interrogations of Dr. Werbin after he returns from 40 days in Egyptian captivity, and the anxiety and worry of the soldiers’ families back home. According to the filmmaker, “The personal events blend with the national ones in order to create a rich and emotional experience… This conflict is especially relevant today, since the Israeli experience is built around that tension between the individual and the nation: the rights of the individual to freedom and independence, and in the face of mutual responsibility and sacrifice for the benefit of all.”
This is a hard-hitting war film, with all the grit and grime and blood that goes along with war. It is extremely well-done – the acting, the screenplay, the directing, and the editing are all excellent. If you liked Michael Aloni in Shtissel and in Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, you’ll appreciate him here, as the complex main character, Dr. Werbin, who is assigned in his reserve duty to report to this outpost, on Erev Yom Kippur.
The film provides in-depth characters -- there is Shlomo, the young commander of the outpost, whose father is a survivor of Auschwitz, and is so proud of his son, an officer in the Jewish army; there is the radio operator who wants to study art; there is Avihail, the young religious soldier assigned to the outpost from the rabbinate; and there is Dr. Nahum Werbin whose wife is pregnant with their first child. He is working desperately to save the lives of the wounded and to prepare them for evacuation. But no reinforcements are forthcoming, and there is no evacuation on the horizon.
As the days go by and there are no medical supplies left, and little food and ammunition, Shlomo is faced with an impossible decision. The higher command has put the decision about surrender in his hands. On the one hand, he has been taught to fight to serve his country, and never to surrender. On the other hand, he has a responsibility to protect the lives of his soldiers.
Another recent film, Image of Victory, directed by Avi Nesher, is also about surrender in wartime and about the failure of the Israeli military command to provide full support for the soldiers – both in battle and in surrender.
According to Nahum Barnea, veteran political columnist for Yediot Aharonot (August 4, 2023), who attended the premiere screening in Tel Aviv, the Stronghold is about whether a soldier has to dedicate his life to his country, or whether his country should give him full support and dedicate itself to him. He explained that this contract is relevant also today as we turn our attention to reserve soldiers who oppose the judicial coup and are threatening to stop volunteering in the reserves. He concluded with: “Fortunately, the drama that took place at the outpost, did not result in a second Masada (a national suicide), rather sanctity of life was victorious over our obsession with heroism.”
The film was dedicated to the filmmaker’s father who served in the Yom Kippur War as a physician in Sinai. Therefore, according to the filmmaker, he was “acquainted with the values and dilemmas of the world of military medicine,” and when he read Dr. Werbin’s memoir, he knew that he had to adapt it into a film.
No comments:
Post a Comment