A Family Comedy

The Big League (ליגה של גדולים), directed by Yaniv Berman, is a feel-good, family comedy for those who enjoy soccer! 

This week, during the war against Iran and against Hizbollah, I went with my grandkids to see a family movie.  The movie theaters are mostly underground at Yes Planet in Jerusalem, so they are considered relatively safe.  We all enjoyed ourselves and came out with a smile on our faces.  Don’t expect too much depth from this one!

Our hero, played by Yisrael Attias (who we know from the TV hit, HaShababnikim), is a professional soccer coach who has a problem with anger management.  After an incident in which he attacks the referee, he is sent as punishment to the periphery of the country where he is meant to coach a junior high team.

Of course, he is antagonistic to the whole enterprise and, at first, refuses to even attempt to make this work.  But eventually the kids, the team spirit, one particular woman, and the smalltown lifestyle of this northern town, all contribute to his becoming committed to his newfound role.

At a time when Hizbollah rockets and Iranian missiles are falling in the north of Israel, this film, partially about the lure of living in the Galilee, proved to be especially poignant.

The Big League is produced by Transfax and distributed by United King.

The Mystery of Roni Kalderon

Wanted: Roni Kalderon is a fascinating documentary film by Hilla Medalia and Erez Laufer.  The film follows the extraordinary story of Roni Kalderon like a thriller, from his early days in the 1970s as a 17-year-old rising star, playing for the Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer team till his disappearance from a prison in Sao Paulo in the 1990s.   

Much of the soundtrack of the film is Kalderon’s voice recorded by Israeli journalist, Rafi Reshef, who traveled all the way to a Sao Paulo prison in 1992 to interview him.  The story goes back to the 1970s, to a young man, described as a troublemaker, moving from team to team, partying, and clubbing.  He loved the thrills, the fooling around, and eventually got involved with drugs. 

When Kalderon is recruited to play for Ajax in the Netherlands, he is forced to endure a one-year ban since a player can’t just go off and play for another team.  He was only 18 years-old at the time.  Soon after, he returns to Israel and helps the Tel Aviv youth team win the Asian cup.  Then begins a period of moving from team to team – first to Ajax’s biggest rival, Rotterdam, then Paris, back to Israel to Hapoel’s rival, Beitar, then Ramat Gan. 

By the 1980s he was caught for trafficking in heroin, and imprisoned in Israel.  After that, there are many more surprises in his life’s journey.

Wanted: Roni Kalderon (documentary, 92 minutes) is a well-developed film, with lots of twists and turns.  We encounter people from his past, including his Brazilian wife, his two brothers, and his soccer companions. We finally feel that we know this extraordinary, charming, and extremely popular character. 

On the other hand, we don’t know him at all – how can one really understand such an enigmatic fellow?  His story is puzzling, since we certainly can’t solve the mystery surrounding his disappearance.  You can’t help but wonder what caused a successful Israeli young man to go from being a popular soccer star to a big player on the international drug scene.  Was it money? Was it ego? Was it the world of temptations?

The film is available from Nahum Laufer at laufern@netvision.net.il

The Difficulties of Being a Refugee

Running on Sand, directed by Adar Shafran, is a wonderfully compelling film about refugees in Israel --  how they are treated, the racism that they experience, and the harsh reality of the immigration police and how they track these people down in order to deport them.  In Israel, these refugees are called ‘foreign workers’, a term which denies their political status, and they are all grouped together which makes them basically invisible.

Aumari is an easy-going fellow from Eritrea. He is a long-distance runner, and from the opening sequence, it seems that he ran across all of the desert to reach the border with Israel.  He has been living in Israel for five years, washing dishes for a living, surviving in a shared apartment with other refugees, waiting for his younger brother to join him.  One day, he is caught by the immigration police who want to send him to Uganda. Aumari is frightened that the Ugandans will ship him back to Eritrea, which he knows is a death sentence.

Using his wits, Aumari is able to outsmart the immigration police at the airport.  But he runs into a new complication when he is greeted by the fans of Maccabi Netanya’s soccer team, who are awaiting the arrival of their newest player from Nigeria.  Overnight, he becomes a big soccer star.  But he doesn’t really know or understand the rules of soccer. And thus begins the really compelling part of the film.

As Aumari is trying to make the situation work for him, the film turns into a comedy.  In fact, there are some buffoons on the soccer team, who help with the comic elements – such as the German player who is constantly repeating the swear words in Hebrew and Arabic, and the religious fellow who likes to instruct everyone in the Torah by telling them that you must love the stranger in your midst! 

Aumari is a special type of fellow, able to befriend people, make people laugh, and he succeeds in helping the captain of the team understand how to get everyone to work together.  He even develops a special relationship with the somewhat quirky daughter of the owner of the team. But Aumari understands that permanent status in Israel is elusive and he must return to being a refugee.

It is interesting to note that the remarkable African actors in the film who are playing refugees are actually refugees themselves.

Running on Sand is available from Picture Tree International.

Kicking Out Shoshana

Another comedy to add to the growing list of comedies produced in Israel this year --  Kicking Out Shoshana, directed by Shai Kanot, currently playing in Israeli movie houses.  Sometimes the most politically incorrect comedy can be the most entertaining.  This film, although obviously lacking in profundity, is an hysterical farce about soccer and homophobia!! 

The story is a simple one -- Ami Shushan is the hero of the Jerusalem soccer team and he lives and breathes soccer.   When Ami shows interest in the girlfriend of a local hooligan, he is punished and forced to state publicly that he is gay, and that's when his soccer fans show their true homophobic colors and rename him "Shoshana".   As a result, a new gay and lesbian world is opened for Ami, and eventually also for his fans. 

 

The film pokes fun at just about everyone and everything -- sports agents, transvestites, paparazzi, ultra-orthodox Jews, breast implants, and most of all, homophobes.  It is definitely an over-the-top politically incorrect film, yet I found myself laughing throughout.