We bring up our sons to be heroes and then we send them off to war. A serious look at how one mother copes.

Another Israeli feature film that opened at the Jerusalem Film Festival this week --  

Oxygen, directed by Netalie Braun, is a hard-hitting and serious look at Israeli mothers and what they are forced to face when their sons go off to serve in the military. We bring up our sons to become soldiers and heroes, but worry frantically when they go to serve in wartime.

Netalie Braun is well-known for two previous major films -- 

• the award-winning documentary, The Hangman
• Metamorphosis, a film which combines documentary and video art.

Anat and her son Ido, who is a soldier in the Golani unit, have a very special relationship. They go swimming in the sea together and are planning a trip to India when he is discharged from the army.  Anat is the daughter of an army general. She teaches in an elementary school, where she teaches the children about the glory and heroism of the Six Day War.  She is obviously fully supportive of the Israel Defense Forces.

When her son is preparing to be part of a military ground incursion into Lebanon, something inside her snaps and she begins to panic that something will happen to her son.  We are all asked to make sacrifices, but Anat does not want to lose her son whom she loves more than anything. She sets out on a journey to the Lebanese border to find her son and bring him home. Not succeeding in that, she begins to hatch a plan in which she thinks she can save him.

There is a scene in the film in which Anat locks the front door of their apartment and hides the key so that Ido cannot leave the house and return to his unit. This scene reminded me of another Israeli film, Present Continuous (2012) directed by Aner Preminger, which was also about a woman in crisis who wants only to protect her children.

Oxygen provides a platform for a remarkable performance by Dana Ivgy as the mother, panicked about losing her son. Both the mother – from her crisis mindset – and the son – due to his asthma – seem to be in need of oxygen!  At this time of ongoing war, are the mothers of Israel capable of protecting their children?

Details about availability can be obtained from Aviv Ben Shlush, Producer at ZOA Films, aviv@zoafilms.com or Adi Bar Yosef, Producer at Baryo Productions, adibaryo@gmail.com

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

 

A Study of a Woman in Crisis

During the last 10-15 years of Israeli filmmaking, there has been a shift in the way that women are portrayed on the screen. Not only are there more complex narrative films about women than ever before, but these films also go beyond stereotypes and portray honest and authentic relationships and issues, tackling contemporary subject matter in ways that are compelling to the film-going public.  Previously, in Israeli film, women had most often been portrayed as peripheral characters.  Now, however, women are often seen as major players in important feature films, many of which have received critical acclaim and won prizes at festivals around the world.  

 

The best of these films have been previously reviewed on this blog --

• ·         Band's Visit by Eran Kolirin, 2008
• ·         Noodle by Ayelet Menahemi, 2007
• ·         Jellyfish by Shira Gefen and Etgar Keret, 2008
• ·         Aviva My Love by Shemi Zarchin, 2006
• ·         Three Mothers by Dina Zvi Riklis, 2006

and two political representations --

• ·         The Lemon Tree by Eran Riklis, 2008
• ·         Divine Intervention by Elia Suleiman, 2002

Just recently, I had the opportunity to view a new feature film which is a psychological study of the Israeli mother.  Present Continuous החיים בינתיים   , directed by Aner Preminger and script by Orit Kimel, is about the difficulties of letting your children grow up and become independent, especially when you are living in a constant state of anxiety and siege.  Aner Preminger is well-known for his previous study of an Israeli woman, Blind Man's Bluff (1993) (also previously reviewed on this blog).  The lead from that film, Hagit Dasberg, also plays the lead in this new film.

Present Continuous takes place in Jerusalem.  It is 2002, during the height of the Second Intifada (Palestinian uprising) and there are bombs going off almost every day on buses, at cafes and in the outdoor market, and people are frightened to let their children walk in the streets. 

Ruthy personally experiences a bombing incident in which she feels the blast and sees the terrible destruction.  In her post-traumatic state, she becomes obsessed with trying to protect her family from the dangers lurking outdoors.  It is hard for her to let her family out of the house.  But it is also not easy to be together as a family within this pressure cooker -- there are tensions, suspicions, betrayals and each member of the family is concerned with his own worries.  But the mother is desperate about keeping them safe and together.  

She also talks about her need to do something, to change things, to make a difference.  Her daughter retorts that there are other ways to bring about change, and she lists some of the organizations against the occupation in which the mothers of her friends are active -- Machsom Watch, Women in Black.  But this mother has other ideas about how to keep her family safe. 

By barricading her children in a small and claustrophobic Jerusalem apartment -- according to the filmmaker, Aner Preminger -- the mother is metaphorically trying to pull them back into the womb.  The womb can offer safety and warmth for a developing fetus, but it can be stifling and dangerous for a mature adult.

This is a delicate study of a woman in crisis.  It is also an intense and beautiful look at her relationship with her husband and her teenage children.

Present Continuous (2012) is available from Seventh Art Releasing in North America and from Go2Films  in the rest of the world.  View the trailer.