America— A new Israeli film about friendship and so much more

America, directed by Ofir Raul Graizer opened this past week at the Jerusalem Film Festival. His previous film, The Cakemaker, has also been reviewed on this blog.  America is a bittersweet story about friendship, life and death, issues of identity, and the healing power of swimming, flowers, food and love.

Eli is living in Chicago, working at a swim club where he teaches young kids.  When he learns of his father’s death, he returns to Israel to close up details, especially the house that belonged to his family.  While there, he reconnects with his old friend, Yotam, and meets Yotam’s fiancé, Iris, who together run a beautiful flower shop. They find their lives changed forever by their encounter with Eli.

The story develops in chapters.  We learn about Eli’s father, a senior police officer, who beat his wife and son.  We also learn about Yotam’s family, especially his mother who has never found it in her heart to accept Iris, perhaps because of her Ethiopian background.  Iris is a compelling character, grappling with the tragedy in her life.  One of her formative experiences is that she ran away from her own home in Beersheba when she was 16 years-old because the religious atmosphere was stifling. 

The actress playing the part of Iris,  won a prize for acting at the Jerusalem Film Festival this past week.  According to the judges' comments, her prize was for her strong and natural screen presence.

When Yotam and Eli go for a hike to their secret stream and waterfall, there is a terrible accident and suddenly things change forever. 

The film offers stunning photography and amazing use of flowers, plants and color -- from the desert shots to the flower shop, from the waterfall to the colorfully painted walls of Iris’ apartment.  In fact, color is used as a running commentary -- for example a sign of rebirth and hope is seen when the desert hills are covered with a pale green fuzz which appears every year after the winter rains. The script draws attention to color when Iris says that she likes the kitchen in Eli’s parents' home because the wall tiles are bright red, something from the 1970s!  She goes on to say that Israeli homes are usually just painted white. I interpreted this to mean -- Israeli films, not just kitchens, are usually so black and white, devoid of color and design.  But in this film, color is used wonderfully! 

This is a story of real people, three friends – one from an abusive family, one from a religious family, and the third is the glue holding them together.  

America (2022, 127 minutes) was produced by Laila Films.   

New Film by Lior Ashkenazi

Lior Ashkenazi is well-known as one of the most outstanding actors in the Israeli film world.  He has starred in numerous excellent Israeli films, including Late Marriage, Walk on Water, Norman, Footnote, Foxtrot.  With his directing debut, Perfect Strangers, we see his talent also as a director!  This film is both humorous and serious, it is fast-paced, strongly directed and edited, and superbly acted. 

The film is based on the Italian award-winning film of the same title directed by Paolo Genovese (2016), which seats a bunch of couples around a table, and one suggests putting their cellphones in the middle.  Thus, all the participants end up sharing their messages and phone calls that come in during the evening.  Certainly, a recipe for disaster! Would you share all the details of your life with your friends?

Lior Ashkenazi’s local cultural version of the film is full of twists and turns.  It offers us insights into seven friends, all of them around a dinner table, and makes the outcome into a uniquely Israeli story, with secrets big and small.  The film takes place in a comfortable suburb, where upper middle-class friends joke about how terrible it would be to live in Tel Aviv.  They have a real suburban lifestyle and the host of the evening is very proud of his new gas grill on his beautiful balcony, on which he cooks all kinds of ostentatious meat dishes, reflecting his over-the-top cultural milieu.   

The conversation begins as lightweight and humorous, and at first, I thought the film was a great comedy, but we soon discover it has a dark side to it as well. Slowly there arises a real competition among the participants and many personal problems are brought up, including lying about how one’s business is doing, and sharing problems with regard to child-rearing. After the cellphones are placed in the middle of the table, the tone of the banter begins to shift from light to heavy, as some sensational secrets emerge. 

We all live behind a curtain of a certain amount of fiction. I will not reveal any spoilers about some of the secrets that are revealed that lead to more and more complications among the friends at the table. Nor will I share anything about the remarkable denouement, which gives the plot a whole new paradoxical meaning. Suffice it to say that the film is full of surprises.

I really enjoyed this film.  The script was tight and complex – it deals with many issues in Israeli society, including problems of post-trauma from experiences in the army and the nuanced nature of Israel society’s struggles relating to people in the LGBTQ community. It is labelled as both a comedy and a drama, and I now understand why. Freud would have loved this film as well!

Take a look at the trailer (Hebrew only).