At the recent Jerusalem Film Festival, I had the chance to
see the new Israeli feature film, Epilogue (Hebrew title: Hayuta and Berl)
directed by Amir Manor. The film, which has
been chosen to be screened at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, is about the disillusionment of the aging visionaries
of the founding generation and about the hardships of growing old. Berl is an
old Labor Party supporter and activist and he believes that the new society
that they worked so hard to build has been hijacked by others. When
Berel calls in to a radio talk show, the radio host tells him: "we have
moved on" as if the old socialist values are no longer relevant.
The film provides a moving
and intense look at an aging couple -- their hardships, physical ailments,
disillusionments, humiliations and loneliness.
Hayuta and Berl's son and his family live in New York, and their friends
are dying.
The viewer gets to know
both of these characters in an in-depth way, due both to the moving acting and
the hard-hitting script.
Epilogue is available
from Norma Production.
