A New Film by Avi Nesher - Image of Victory

Avi Nesher’s new high-budget and powerful film, Image of Victory (aka Portrait of Victory) tells two parallel stories about a battle of the 1948 war, particularly how the Egyptians conquered Kibbutz Nitzanim.

The film opens in 1978 when peace is announced between Egypt and Israel.  A successful Egyptian journalist remembers back 30 years to a battle during the 1948 war when, as a young man, he had been sent, with a cameraman, to shoot propaganda newsreels which would portray victorious moments that would help King Farouk with his popularity.  He remembers back to a battle against Nitzanim. At that time, Nitzanim was a small kibbutz outpost (on the southern border with Egypt).  The young kibbutz members and the army irregulars were poorly trained, naïve and idealistic. They were up against the fedayeen and then later, up against the better equipped Egyptian army.

The film is based on a true story of the defeat of Nitzanim.  At that time, the kibbutz was outnumbered by the powerful Egyptian army, but members of the kibbutz were told to hold the line.  Their eventual surrender, even after many were killed in the fighting, was seen as a shameful defeat, leaving a black mark on the history of the State of Israel, according to normative Israeli history.  This film was meant to redress that terrible historical black mark. The film was billed in the media as an anti-war film but it seemed to me to be much more of a nationalist telling of the “real” story of what happened at Nitzanim. It makes some of the kibbutzniks and soldiers into heroes and heroines, despite their defeat.

I really liked the fact that two parallel stories are offered.  One story is that of the journalist who is dedicated to making a serious film, using also a love story as a hook to bring in the Egyptian audience, but is forced to create army propaganda.  The second  is the story of the kibbutzniks, as personified in Mira, an extremely motivated and independent young woman, the radio operator for the kibbutz, willing to die in defending her community.   These two stories are somehow connected since the journalist and his cameraman have their eyes on Mira, throughout the whole film, as if to put a human face to the enemy.

Overall, I feel that it was a good film but not a great one. Many of the characters were lacking in depth, and the script was often childish. Nevertheless, it was a moving and authentic re-enactment of an important part of the War of Independence, with a new twist. It was particularly fascinating to get a glimpse of how some Egyptians saw us during that war, as not much more than a bunch of colonizers who were settling on contested land. Bringing the Egyptian narrative into the film was an important innovation—it allowed us to see “the other side” for once in one of our wars, and help us get some insights into what they were thinking and feeling.

Without offering a spoiler, history has taught us that Israel lost the battle for Nitzanim, but Egypt never succeeded in its main goal of destroying Tel Aviv (and eliminating the state of Israel!) and therefore Egypt (and the other Arab countries) lost the war, even though they won this particular battle. Historians in Israel in recent years have revealed that even though the Arab armies were larger and better equipped (as we saw in this film), the young Israeli army was better organized, which was one of the main reasons that it was able to be victorious.

Avi Nesher is a highly acclaimed filmmaker and many of his films have been previously reviewed on this blog.  In his earlier period, in the 70s, he made Sing Your Heart Out (The Troupe) and Dizengoff 99.  After a long period of filmmaking in Hollywood, he returned to work in Israel and made Turn Left at the End of the World (2004), Secrets (2007), Matchmaker (2010), Wonders (2013), Past Life (2016), The Other Story (2018).

The Other Story by Avi Nesher

Avi Nesher is one of Israel’s greatest and most prolific filmmakers.  In his early years, he was well-known for Sing Your Heart Out (HaLahaka).  After a long period working in Hollywood, he returned to Israel where he has made some of the more important films of the last 25 years: Turn Left at the End of the World, Secrets, Wonders, and Past Life.

According to the publicity for his latest film, The Other Story, it’s about a young woman who is becoming haredi (ultra-orthodox) and her parents want to prevent her from marrying, because, let’s face it, marrying someone from the haredi world would probably be an irreversible commitment for her. But the film is not only about that. It’s about so much more.   

It is a gripping complex narrative film that follows two family stories.  Both stories are about relations between parents and children, and explore whether any of us really can know what’s best for our children. 

Anat and Shahar were a couple when they were secular, even hedonistic, youngsters.  Today, they have both become ultra-orthodox and are engaged to be married. Shahar is the lead singer in a band and is studying in a Jerusalem yeshivah and Anat is in an ultra-orthodox seminary for girls. In a desperate attempt to block the upcoming wedding, Anat’s mother sends for her estranged husband who has been living in the USA. She wants his help in stopping the wedding at any cost.

In the second story, Anat’s grandfather and father are both therapists and are counseling a couple who are fighting over what is best for their young son. Both parents seem to be somewhat off balance – the father is ready to stoop to any means to keep control over his son and the mother participates in a so-called “cult” which is actually an ultra-feminist group where the women are worshipping a Canaanite goddess. 

The parallel between ultra-orthodoxy and ultra-feminism, both as forms of extremism, is quite striking. Who is to say which zealotry is preferable – extreme secularism or ultra-orthodoxy? 

    

I loved The Other Story.  It is filled with sharp dialogue, dramatic tension, multiple motivations, and in-depth characterizations. 

Past Life by Avi Nesher

Last night, I had the honor of seeing one more Israeli film which just opened here in Jerusalem – Past Life by Avi Nesher – and it is the most compelling and serious Israeli film that I have seen in a long time.

Avi Nesher makes great films.  He is known for his earlier films – Dizengoff ’99 and Sing Your Heart Out – and for his later films – Turn Left at the End of the World, Secrets, and Wonders. 

His newest film, Past Life (Hebrew title: החטאים ), tells the story of two sisters in 1977 Israel who learn about their father’s complicated and problematic past during the Holocaust.  It is also about the blurring of moral choices in time of war.  The script is based on the true story of Ella Sheriff, wife of Noam Sheriff (the Israeli world-renowned conductor/musician/composter).

 

According to a radio interview with Avi Nesher last Friday, he chose to have the film take place in 1977 because this was a year of upheaval in Israeli society.  There were the political changes of the revolutionary election of the Likud to power as well as the historic visit of Egyptian President Sadat to Jerusalem, which led to the groundbreaking peace agreement with Egypt.  This was also the end of the period of the “generals”, a macho period in which the leadership of the Israel Defense Forces  thought that they had answers to everything, but in fact their conventional understanding of the enemy was mistaken, which led to the debacle of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War.  The fact that   everything got turned upside down in so many different ways is clearly reflected in this relevant film, especially because this is the story of two very strong women.

Ella Sheriff, like her husband, is a musician/composer.  Interviewed on the same talk radio program as Avi Nesher, she said that as a result of participating in this project, she felt that she was being pushed to finally grapple with her story.  She said that before she saw the film, she couldn’t believe that this would be a true telling of her family’s story.  But now, having viewed it, she realized how much Avi Nesher caught the depths of who she is and the important aspects of her story. 

The narrative of the film is about two sisters -- Sephie is learning music at the Academy of Music in Jerusalem, and Nana, who is older, is married and co-publishing a provocative intellectual magazine together with her husband.  At a choral performance in Berlin, an older woman shouts at Sephie that her father was a murderer.  Clearly shaken by this outburst, she undertakes a journey, together with her sister, trying to discover who her father really was and what happened to him during the war. 

This is not just another Holocaust film.  It is a deeply compelling look at some of the extremely difficult moral choices people were forced to take, and how those choices impact on their lives 30 years later. 

The film is also like a concert, showcasing extraordinary choral music and concluding with a triumphant, even cathartic, concert performed back in Berlin. 

Past Life, which opened at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, is probably Avi Nesher’s best film yet.  Don’t miss it!

Wonders -- A new film by Avi Nesher

The new Avi Nesher film, Wonders, is now playing in movie theaters in Israel.  The film is scripted jointly by Nesher and Sha'anan Streett (lead singer of the Israeli internationally renowned hip-hop group, HaDag Nachash). 

It is interesting that Israeli society has an ambivalent relationship vis-a-vis the ultra-orthodox world.  On the one hand, we heavily critique this world because we resent the fact that the young men don't make the sacrifices that other young men make by serving in the Israeli army.  On the other hand, we are fascinated by this world which is seen as strangely exotic and quite compelling.  In his new film, Avi Nesher is exploring the appeal of certain facets of this world -- its mystical and spiritual elements.

This is not Nesher's first cinematic portrayal of this world -- his film Secrets (2007) was a film of complexity about ultra-orthodox young women, which dealt with love, forgiveness, life and death and superstition.   In this new film, Wonders, he again looks at the world of superstition and offers a thriller about a rabbi who works wonders and foretells the future.  This is quite an achievement as Nesher  leaves behind the sentimentality of his previous films and enters a world that combines the linear story of a thriller with the abstract or spiritual. 

The wonderfully complex story revolves around a young, secular man named Arnav ("rabbit"), a barman who is also a graffiti artist, living in Musrara, an old Jerusalem neighborhood of twisting alleyways, quaint homes, and abandoned buildings.  Arnav, who is a naive and lovable character, discovers that a rabbi with special powers is being held prisoner in an abandoned building right across the way from his apartment.  A private detective comes along who wants to use Arnav's apartment as a stakeout and he recruits Arnav to work with him.  There are wonderful twists and turns as the plot unfolds -- who has kidnapped the rabbi?  who has hired the detective?  why is the rabbi so afraid of his kidnappers?  who stole the hard drive and why? will the young waitress find what she's desperately looking for? and what does the rabbi's sister-in-law have to do with all this? 

The film is more than a thriller -- it is also a bit of a romance, a bit of a comedy, and wonderfully touching in some ways.   As Arnav's graffiti characters become animated and come to life, comedy and whimsy are added to the story. 

Filmmaker Avi Nesher has directed films both in Israel and in the United States.  His early films made a name for him in Israel -- Sing Your Heart Out (1978), a story about the life in the Army Entertainment Troupe, and Dizengoff 99 (1979), which was considered controversial at the time due to the permissive lifestyle portrayed.  Following these films, Nesher began working in Hollywood as a scriptwriter and then moved over to directing with films such as Time Bomb (1989), Automatic (1994), Mercenary (1996), Taxman (1999), and Ritual (2001).  After his return to Israel in recent years, he has made four wonderfully quirky and complex hit films: Turn Left at the End of the World (2004), Secrets (2007), Matchmaker (2010), and his latest, Wonders (2013).

In the U.S., Wonders is available from Israeli Films. 

Two films by Avi Nesher

In recent years, filmmaker Avi Nesher (originally known for Sing Your Heart Out and Dizengoff '99, who was working in Hollywood for many years), has returned to Israel and made two feature films about teenage girls. Both became immediate hits: Turn Left at the End of the World (2004) and The Secrets (2007).

Turn Left at the End of the World
The story takes place in a desolate development town and focuses on the friendship between the daughter of French-speaking Jews from Morocco and the daughter of educated English-speaking Jews from India. Notwithstanding the tensions between the two immigrant groups, the film is filled with charm and depth, all on the background of a desert town, where the only employment is at the local glass factory. Add cricket, 1960s dancing and period clothes, a love affair, a mikveh scene, and tension among the Moroccans themselves -- between the French-speaking ones and the superstitious, uneducated ones. Perhaps the greatest feature of the film is its quirky and real-life characters.

The Secrets
This is a painful story of two religious girls, studying at a midrashah (a girls' yeshivah) in Tsfat. Their developing relationship revolves around their encounter with a mysterious French woman. A film of great complexity, this is about love and forgiveness, life and death, superstition and humor.

Nomi is the daughter of a rabbi, a learned man, and she loves the study of Torah. Her greatest desire is to study and be equal to men who study. Her father has chosen for her a Talmud protégé, but she is not in love with him. After her mother's death, Nomi goes to Tsfat for a year of study and is assigned, together with Michelle, a girl who has come to the midrashah from Europe, to visit and bring food to a French woman (Fanny Ardent), living in the area. Most of the narrative construct is built around the relationship between Michelle and Nomi as they are helping the older woman in her need to seek forgiveness for the things she has done in her life.

The film is filled with life-cycle events -- a scene of shiva'a for Nomi's mother, a kabbalistic (almost pagan) scene of rebirth for the French woman, and a wonderful, concluding wedding scene of Michelle's marriage to a lively and humorous klezmer musician.

One of these films takes place on the background of life in a development town and the other in the world of ultra-orthodox Judaism. What do they have in common?

Both films are filled with quirky characters, wonderful vignettes and include a fair amount of female frontal nudity and sex. In both, the narrative deals mainly with teenage adolescent angst and focuses on the relationship between two girls from very different backgrounds. In both films, there are lesbian tendencies in the relationship between the girls.

These films are about the conflict between tradition and modernity, focusing on the challenge for a young woman to break out of the constraints and roles that are set for her in a traditional society. Both films conclude with one of the girls remaining within the boundaries set for her by her community and the other is empowered to leave the community. In the first film, Turn Left at the End of the World – as the film ends, one of the girls leaves the development town and one remains; in the second film, The Secrets -- as Michelle goes forward with her wedding, Nomi cancels hers. Leaving the accepted framework of her life, Nomi decides to devote her life to study and moves into her own apartment, thus she has stepped out of the boundary that was created for her by the man's world of ultra-orthodoxy.

Although the young women in these two films represent specific communities – either ethnic characters or ultra-orthodox women – they are portrayed as in-depth and complex characters whose motivations and rebellions are seen as authentic and realistic. In fact this reflects a trend in recent years of Israeli filmmaking in which there have been a plethora of quality films dealing with intensive relationships between women. This comes in direct contrast to earlier films which had largely marginalized women and women's issues, and which portrayed women only in supporting roles or as stereotypes, such as ethnic characters or war widows. In recent years, this has changed remarkably as we now see a large number of films offering complex narratives dealing with close and difficult relationships between women.

(Additional recent portrayals of women include: Noodle, Aviva My Love, Jellyfish, Syrian Bride, Free Zone, The Lemon Tree, Three Mothers, Seven Days, Or, Nina's Tragedies, Trumpet in the Wadi, and more.)

Secrets by Avi Nesher

My sister, Dr. Ellen Feingold, is a pediatrician who has specialized in homeopathy, teenage gynecology and eating disorders. She recently had the opportunity to see Avi Nesher's Secrets, and shares the following posting with us --

Secrets, a 2007 Israeli film directed by Avi Nesher, was nominated for 8 Israel Film Academy awards. It was the Official Selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best Feature Winner of the Jackson Hole International Film Festival.

Secrets is the absorbing, engrossing, riveting story of a young Orthodox Jewish woman, Naomi, daughter of a fairly modern rabbi, engaged to a prominent scholar at her father’s yeshiva. As the film opens, Naomi’s mother has just died.

As a result of Naomi’s grief for her mother, she resolves to attend a girls’ yeshiva in Tsfat, to devote herself to learning rather than rushing to get married. Since her father has emphasized learning in his household and has taught Naomi himself, she is able to convince him to allow her to delay her engagement and go to learn for one year.

Naomi and her 3 roommates at the girls’ yeshiva form the nucleus of the film. Naomi is the learned one. Michelle, a wayward girl from France, is the wild one. Sigi, the ba'al teshuva, is always overdoing mitzvot and determining morality for everyone else. The fourth girl, fat and food obsessed, comes to the yeshiva solely to find a husband.

Naomi and Michelle become embroiled in 3 secrets: they share a lesbian relationship; they become the main emotional support for a sick (but Christian) French woman, Anouk, to whom the girls’ yeshiva delivers food parcels; and they enter into kabbalistic rituals to cleanse Anouk of her previous sins (which are themselves secrets) so she can die without fear.

The first secret, Naomi and Michelle having a lesbian relationship, is never revealed (except to us) but nevertheless, it is the overriding secret of the film. The sex scene, left mostly to the imagination, between Naomi and Michelle is beautifully photographed and directed. Somehow Naomi is able to rationalize that lesbians are not hated by G-d, the way homosexual men are, because they do not spill seed.

The second secret, Anouk’s emotional dependence on Michelle and Naomi and theirs upon her, is curtailed as soon as the third secret, that the girls have entered into forbidden kabbalistic rituals becomes known by the headmistress. The chief rabbi of Tsfat demands that the headmistress dismiss Naomi and Michelle. And so the girls are reprimanded and sent home.

Naomi, we realize, is never to marry. Her father and ex-intended are thoroughly disgusted with her: how dare she step into the realms meant for men alone? Michelle is less able to be content with a lifetime of lesbianism and ultimately marries a kind, gentle, modern Orthodox man, Yankl, whose joy in life is to play the klezmer clarinet.

The film is a fascinating glimpse into how women are perceived and treated in orthodox Judaism. Imagine, an accident of birth determining the limits of your intellectual growth! If you are born with a complement of XX chromosomes instead of XY, you are doomed to a lifetime of stunted development. One wonders how fathers, grandfathers, and brothers, mothers, grandmothers, and sisters all allow the stunting of fifty percent of their population, telling themselves, it is G-d’s will.

If you’ve missed this one, be sure to rent it. It will help you stand up against injustice everywhere.