Good deeds in Israeli cinema
Woman embarks on journey to rescue small Chinese child, lone soldier's cry for help is left unanswered, author fights for recognition and two women hang laundry. This is what Israeli reality looks like from behind cinema photographer's lens
In a salute to this huge Israeli demonstration of solidarity, we invite you on a journey through some of the moments of grace seen in Israeli films in recent years.
Chinese boy to go – 'Noodle'
Miri is a two-time IDF widow. She lost two husbands in Israel's wars, and the deep pain makes her draw away from life and all it has to offer. A small Chinese boy, abandoned in Israel after his mother was deported by the Immigration Police, forces her to embark on a daring rescue operation aimed at returning to child to his mother in China.
One of the scenes in "Noodle" includes a lovely homage to another famous Israeli film. Gila, Miri's sister and a physical education teacher, holds a whistle in her mouth while repeatedly timing the little boy's entry and exit from a suitcase in which he is slated to hide on his way home, to China.
In the beginning of the film "Operation Entebbe", Yoni Netanyahu, portrayed by Yehoram Gaon, stands with a whistle in his mouth, repeatedly timing the Sayeret Matkal soldiers' takeover of the hijacked plane in Entebbe.
This gentle homage can give us a nice lesson on the Israeli society's development process, at least from a cinematic point of view. For many decades, Israeli cinema clung to heroic stories empowering the Zionist-national ethos.
"We are embarking on an operation thousands of kilometers away, in order to rescue Israelis just because they are Israelis and Jews. Because if we don't do it, no one will do it for us," as Yehoram-Gaon/Yoni Netanyahu said.
And here comes "Noodle" and translates that national-masculine heroism into a small, intimate story, very feminine and just as heroic. "I have to return the boy to his mother. It's the only law I am familiar with now," says Miri, knowing that she may be facing a conflict with the Chinese authorities.
Miri will rescue Noodle, and will manage to return him to his mother's arms after a long and difficult journey. The wonderful thing about this film is that Noodle rescues Miri too. His presence in her life, even for a short while, re-sparks her passion for life and the craving, which is not too late to fulfill, to become a mother.
'Noodle' / Director: Ayelet Menahemi (2007)
Artistic protest letter – 'The Loners'
In August 1997, a prisoners' revolt broke out in Military Prison 6. The wardens, soldiers on duty, were taken hostage by the military prisoners, most of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who were depicted by the press at the time as a group of thugs.
The description of their hooligan behavior, and the severity of the offenses for which they were jailed, made people wonder why they even got to put on IDF uniform in the first place.
Director Renen Schorr turned this piece of historic reality into the raw material for the plot of "The Loners". With the hand of an artist, Schorr managed to turn the tables – instead of a society shocked to discover the growth of a handful of wild thorns from within, the film describes elements trying with all their might to integrate into society, but remain stuck in their loneliness.
In one of the film's most beautiful scenes, Glory Campbell, the revolt's leader, forces a social conditions NCO being held hostage by him, to write a letter on his behalf to the general, with the intention of explaining his actions.
This is a moment of grace. The tough social conditions NCO puts his poor Hebrew to shame, but her heart aches too when she hears, for the first time, the painful confession on the loneliness and alienation suffered by a lone soldier.
After completing the letter, Glory takes the paper and folds it with a clenched fist. The social conditions NCO and we, the viewers in the cinema, know that such confessions do not usually receive a sympathetic ear here.
And if this film makes any of us think, even a little bit, about the reality outside the cinema, and wonder how many immigrants live in Israel today and feel the same way – lonely – something good has happened here. The road to reparation has begun.
'The Loners' / Renen Schorr (2009)
In name of mother, daughter – 'Aviva, My Love'
Aviva is a hard-working woman from Tiberias. She has an unemployed husband, children who suffer from serious adolescence symptoms, a crazy mother and one dream which Aviva can't give up on – to be a writer.
Somewhere in the middle of the film, Aviva receives an offer she should refuse – a famous Tel Avivian author wants to buy her stories and publish them under his name. The financial reward is something Aviva really needs, and for the sake of her family's happiness and wealth she accepts the offer heavy-heartedly.
"Aviva, My Love." If we were in Hollywood, perhaps this wouldn't have happened. The story's structure would dictate a happy ending which would allow Aviva to narrow the distance of fame between Tiberias, the periphery embroiled in a daily war of survival, and Tel Aviv, "the big orange," where all dreams come true.
And yet, "Aviva, My Love" is a story about hope – not about desperation. In one of the film's climactic scenes, Oshrat, the eldest daughter, faces Aviva and declares that she has found her purpose in life: To be a hooker!
Shocked, Aviva nearly falls off the bench she is sitting on. When she demands an explanation from her daughter, the latter tells her that it's better to sell one's body than one's soul. In an act of frustration and protest, she forces Aviva to confront the terrible price she paid, pleading with her in tears to save her lost dignity.
Where is the grace here, you ask desperately? Well, thanks to the stubborn daughter, Aviva returns to that deceptive author and demands that he return all of the stories which have yet to be published. Thanks to her daughter's trust and appreciation, Aviva goes back to writing the reality of her life and may even fulfill her dream to become a famous author.
This comes to show us that good deeds and charity for our fellowman don't necessarily take place in a separated external space. Sometimes they happen between the closets people, within the walls of one's home.
'Aviva, My Love' / Director: Shemi Zarhin
No more bourekas – 'Turn Left at the end of the World'
"Turn Left at the End of the World" was produced in 2004, but takes place in 1968. It brings together two groups of new immigrants – from Morocco and India – in a remote development town in southern Israel.
In one of the film's nicest scenes, two women – one Moroccan and one Indian – argue over where they should hang their laundry on one clothes line. While reaching a compromise, they move on to argue over the quality of the laundry detergent. The Indian woman notes that her detergent is made in England and is excellent. The Moroccan turns up her nose in scorn. Her detergent is made in France and is, naturally, of better quality than the British one.
It's a nice comical moment, which conceals a subtext that has provided material for an endless number of academic papers as well as some television shows. Here is the small clothes line – a narrow space – in which not two, but four glorious cultures, squeeze in together: Morocco and India, England and France.
After years of humiliating cinematic representation, in which Mizrahi immigrants were perceived as primitive people who must pass through the Zionist education in order to become household names in the Israeli society, a new cinema era finally arrives in which a multi-cultural perception replaces the obsolete melting pot.
"Turn Left at the End of the World" offers a sort of reparation for a historic injustice. If anyone deserves criticism in that short scene, it’s the hidden government which forces two women to hang four cultural sheets on such a short clothes line.
'Turn Left at the End of the World' / Director: Avi Nesher (2004)
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The writer, Galit Roichman, is a screenwriter and cinema lecturer
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