The Jerusalem Film Festival has begun and it is very exciting to see so many people gathered together to enjoy culture from Israel and from all around the world. The opening event took place in Sultan’s Pool, where 6,000 viewers watched the new Israeli film, Tell Me Everything (previously reviewed on this blog).
There are six films competing in the prestigious Haggiag Competition for Best Israeli feature film. The first film shown was What is to Come שעתיד לבוא , directed by Ruthy Pribar, which tells a story about a woman whose husband commits suicide and she has to face the trauma and pick up the pieces of her life.
Yehudit and her husband live in a modest house on a moshav. After her husband commits suicide and leaves her with enormous debts, she leaves her home and takes a bus to Eilat to escape. She gets a job cleaning hotel rooms and rents an apartment in a poor neighborhood. After a few days, a family of African refugees shows up and claims that this is their apartment. They end up living together, and eventually, Yehudit becomes attached to the pregnant mother and her 5-year-old son. At the same time, Yehudit has an affair with the manager of the hotel where she works. The story is surprisingly lacking in complexity and under-developed, with too much left unsaid. At the end, there is a hint that she gets her life back together. But it’s unclear how and we are left wondering how she could leave the little African boy behind!
The second feature film shown in this category was Where
To? לאן a debut film, directed by Assaf Machnes. The director spoke at the premiere screening
at the Jerusalem Film Festival last night, and welcomed both of his
grandmothers to the screening. He
apologized for not providing them with great-grandchildren, but he is
presenting this film instead! The film
was produced with assistance from the Gesher Multi-cultural Film Fund and I am
proud to be affiliated with that fund.
The story takes place in Berlin, almost entirely shot within
the taxicab of Hassan (played by Ihab Salami), a middle-aged Palestinian Uber driver. During the night-time hours, Hassan drives partygoers
from one nightlife venue to another through the streets of Berlin.
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One day, he picks up Amir, a young Israeli and they strike up a conversation about where they are from. Hassan is from Jenin and Amir is from Nahalal. Not so far away from each other. Over a period of months, Hassan ends up driving Amir a few times, and a bit of a friendship develops. Hassan helps Amir by driving him when he is very drunk and very lost. Amir helps Hassan by talking about the importance of real love.
Although the film is not a comedy per se, it has a lot of humor and charm. The funniest scene takes place when Hassan is talking to his
cousin on speaker phone in Arabic when an older Israeli couple gets in the
cab. The cousin says, I hear they are
speaking in Hebrew. Let’s have a bit of fun.
I will throw in words like Jihad and Al-Aksa. And they get a laugh at
playing on the paranoia of the Israeli couple.
Hassan is a charming fellow. We get a feeling for his life
and the issues that are important to him as the film develops over several
months. But we are a little frustrated
because so much between Amir and Hassan is left unsaid. Perhaps the importance
and beauty of the story lie in what is unsaid. On the other hand, there could
have been some more dialogue about some of the critical issues facing them as
an Israeli and a Palestinian, such as why are they estranged from their homes
and yet why do they both yearn to return home?
This film only gives hints about the major issues which
divide Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, it is an attempt to humanize them by
showing that relationships can be formed on their common humanity.
