Film festival in Berlin
צילום: סי די בנק
Jewish themes at Berlin festival
Israeli, Jewish films focus on 'displaced people'
This week the 56th Berlin Film Festival or Berlinale was opened with over 400 films competing in a number of categories – from star-studded blockbuster-contenders to total newcomers.
The Berlinale is the first major film festival of the season season. Since Dieter Kosslick took over the reins of the festival, in 2001, the event has taken on not only more glamour but a socio-political position as well.
None of the films at the Berlinale glorify war or violence. Whether a Korean thriller or an Israeli docudrama, these issues are only discussed with respect to their individual or societal effects.
Israeli and Jewish films focused on a world filled with, as Kirsten Riesselmann of the TAZ newspaper so eloquently put it, “displaced people“.
Israeli films are not spared the discerning eyes of Israeli critics. “The festival is full of them,” one source told EJP. “These critics are however not only the moviegoers. It begins at the top of the festival echelons (…) and that is why even Israel-critical Israeli films are chosen.”
Controversial themes
A prominent Israeli journalist told EJP that even well-intended films like Tomer Heymann’s “Paper Dolls” (Bubot Niyar) “propagates prejudices – even if unintentionally”.
“Paper Dolls” is a film about transvestite Philippino migrant workers in Israel. By day, the protagonists care for the elderly and infirm. By night, they are drag queen performers.
“At first sight, the film shows that all people potentially possess a basic humanity. But that is the first thing you see. On second viewing, you will see that even within such a meaningful movie cliches are anchored.”
“Paper Dolls” did however show that Israeli society is an open and relatively tolerant society. “If anyone comes away with anything from this film, then it is to accept all people for their differences,” one moviegoer told EJP.
Dalia Hagen’s “Close to Home” (Karov la bayit) is a film about the useless task of form-filling that two girls doing their military service must perform – in the name of security. Though the film is not an Israel-critical film in any way, it does show “absurdities (…) potential racism and desensitisation that soldiers must learn in order to be able to accept their duties – in this case controlling people who merely look Arab,” according to a review in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.
Similar to “Close to Home”, Talya Lavie’s “The Substitute” (Hayelet Bodeda) focuses on women coping with their army service.
Negative portrayal of Israel
Udi Aloni’s film “Forgiveness” (Mechilot) “transcends the craziness of complex relationships” found in Israeli society, according to another Berliner Zeitung review.
“Aloni’s films are purely political messages,” one Jewish resident of Berlin told EJP. “On the one hand, it is admirable that Aloni is making a personal effort to bring about a peaceful and brotherly coexistence between Arabs and Jews. But in the end, the Israelis are made out to be the only bad people in the film.”
In “Forgiveness”, Aloni tells the story of mentally impaired concentration camp survivors and a recovering soldier who are placed in an asylum built on an Arab mass grave. The grave contains the bodies of Arab villagers who were massacred by Jewish forces during the 1948 war of independence.
Aloni does not have a clear message with his film. He tells his audience that he made the film “for people to see and draw their own conclusions”.
“People should build an opinion by going home and thinking about what it is that I tried to portray,” Aloni said. “I love Israel and Palestine and we must find a way to get along with each other. I have done my part with this film.”
Dozens of people left Aloni’s film before the movie ended – perhaps voting with their feet.
Amos Gitai’s docu-installation “News from the House” focuses on the past Arab owners of a Jerusalem house.
Chantal Akerman’s “Down There” (La-bas), is the Belgian filmmaker’s autobiographical account of her installation of her trying to make sense of her Jewishness.
Humour and tragedy
Moroccan director Laila Marrakchi presented the film “Marock”. The film is about modern youth and their experiences in a conservative society. “This is a beautiful film because it shows that there are modern aspects to Muslim societies. Usually we just see images of Arab people living backward lives. This was not the case here,” one school student who watched the film told EJP.
“It was nice to see a film in which Jews and Arabs actually get along, despite constraints imposed upon them by society,” she continued.
Palestinian director Najwa Najjiar’s “Yasmine’s Song” (Yasmine Tugani) tells about the doomed hopes for a marriage as a result of the security barrier between Israel and the Palestinian Territories that has divided a village.
Rony Sasson’s “Swanette” (Barburot) and Tsivia Barkai’s “Vika” were the only two films with Jewish or Israel themes that avoided political, historical and culturally sensitive issues.
Many other films feature little-discussed Jewish or Israeli nuances.
As in all of David Burmann’s films, his current contribution to the Berlinale, “Family Law” (Derecho de familia, Argentina), is laden with Jewish humour and recollections of persecution in Europe.
Opportunism as a result of tragedy gets a short yet visible place in Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu’s film “Liviu’s Dream” (Visul lui Liviu). Though bad news arising from the Intifada distresses the protagonist’s father, it also gives him hope that he might one day find work in Israel – replacing a Palestinian worker.
Reprinted by permission of European Jewish Press
