Jerusalem 2003

I Am – You Are
The 20th Jerusalem Film Festival
By Klaus Eder

Lia van Leer, the Cinematheque, the Walls of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, situated on hills, surrounded by desert, formed by a specific architecture, is a most beautiful place — despite the dry heat in July, the thermometer in the middle 30s. Use a hat and carry a bottle of water with you. At dusk, the sky shows an incredible variety of blue colors — best seen from the terrace of the Cinematheque, host and meeting point of the festival, a place of such overwhelming beauty and hospitality that a good many guests might have preferred to enjoy this instead of running to one of the cinemas uncontrollably overcrowded by a young and enthusiastic public.

The festival poster and catalogue show "Jerusalem Film Festival" in three fonts and languages: Hebrew, English, Arabic. Two of these languages are official languages of the State of Israel. Hebrew for sure. Guess the other one. English? No. Unexpectedly, it's Arabic, a part of Israeli citizens being of Arab origin. The confrontation and clash of cultures and religions is indeed omnipresent in Jerusalem's everyday life, not only in its Old City where you pass with one step from Christian to Jewish to Islamic to Armenian quarters. Recently, even one more culture has won importance: after the collapse of the Soviet Union, one million Russians found a new home in Israel, as well as immigrants from other ex-Soviet republics such as Georgia. See, for example, the films of Dover Kosashvili (born 1966 in Georgia), "Late Marriage" and "Gift from Heaven", sort of popular comedies fully playing with Georgian characters and mentality, exported to Israel.

The Jerusalem Cinematheque started a fascinating project. Young people from neighborhood schools are invited to come together for one month to make short films about themselves. "I am — You are" is the title of the project (led by Gilli Mendel), in which Jewish and Arab kids participate equally. Since 1999, five films have come out (shorts, on video, available with English subtitles). One, for example, is about a teenager, daughter of a Jewish mother and an Arab father. Who is she? Jewish? Arabic? The film, in which she, her parents and the grand-parents from both sides are interviewed, can however only raise, but not answer the question of identity. The interesting focus is that it is not filmmakers who talk about young people, it is young people who talk about themselves. This gives their films a certain sociological and political significance of how Jewish and Arab kids can, or cannot live together in one and the same society.

"Channels of Rage"

"In the Name of God"

The confrontation of Jewish with Arab cultures was the main topic in most of the documentaries presented at the festival. "Channels of Rage" by Anat Halachmi (72 minutes) leads in the underground rap scene in Tel Aviv and confronts two protagonists: a Jewish rapper called Subliminal who considers himself with pride as a Zionist, and an Arab rapper called Tamer who obviously won popularity among the Arab youth because he speaks their language. Extremely pro-Zionist and extremely pro-Palestinian texts, a strongly patriotic and a strongly nationalist attitude collide, even if they use the same musical pattern of rap. The film, which juxtaposes both in quite a fair way, not giving preference to the one nor the other, shows rather how both sub-cultures co-exist without finding real links between each other. Seeing this you get, however, the ambiguous feeling that the music war in the underground of Tel Aviv may burst into a real war at any moment.

How this war is being prepared by fundamentalist groups in a variety of Arab countries, shows "In the Name of God – Scenes from the Extreme" by Dan Setton and Tor Ben-Mayor (67 minutes). Frightening scenes: from Pakistan (young women in 'madrassas' called religious schools), from South Lebanon (where kids are prepared for sacrificing themselves for the 'jihad', the holy war), from Shiite festivities (where convicted believers make themselves bleed). Even if the ending shows more conciliatory scenes of a moderate attitude, the film shocks with most provocative scenes from a totally irrational and fanatic fundamentalist movement. The two Israeli filmmakers could of course not shoot these scenes themselves. They had organized a network of cameramen, whom they sent to the different locations where they obviously had been accepted, and whom they provided with precise instructions. "In the Name of God — Scenes from the Extreme" is not only an impressive journalist piece but a masterpiece of montage. At the festival, it was even called 'propaganda'. Yes, for sure. Dan Setton and Tor Ben-Mayor don't fill in the backgrounds nor do they put their scenes in any context. They are not interested in any statistics. With the same means and method, one could probably make a film on the Ku Klux Klan or on neo-fascist young people in the Eastern parts of Germany. On the other hand, putting those radical scenes of fundamentalist showmanship in a historical and political context, would have transformed the film into one of those tv-docs where in a pluralist way all opinions and sides are considered and no opinion is articulated at the end. It would have taken the provocative effect away from the film. "In the Name of God — Scenes from the Extreme" is indeed a provocation. Festival organizers wishing to invite the film should carefully think which public it will meet.

You've seen such a documentary, you leave the cinema — and you find yourself in the midst of the world the films are describing. Ramallah is only a few kilometers away. From the terrace of the Cinematheque, you see, on the horizon and in the desert, Palestinian villages. Jerusalem's Festival is indeed a unique event: where the city and the screen merge into one. The city provides the documentarists with the subjects of their filmmaking. This is particularly true for documentaries, of course. Paradoxically, the recent feature films care much less about the country's political reality. Seven films were included in the program: quite an astonishing number, regarding that Israel is a rather small country. This activity is possible thanks to the work of the "Israel Film Fund", skillfully and sensibly chaired by Katriel Schory, and disposing of a budget of eight million dollars per year. Social comedies dominate, such as "James' Journey to Jerusalem" by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz, about a black priest arriving in Jerusalem from an African village and being treated as a criminal (which he finally becomes); or "Sima Vaknin Witch" by Dror Shaul, about an elderly woman who by blind chance gains the reputation for foreseeing future (interesting script, lousy realization).

By far the most successful film was Savi Gabizon's "Nina's Tragedies (A Very Sad Comedy)". A 14 years old boy narrates a story of his family: his parent's divorce, his dying father, his aunt with whom he deeply falls in love and with whom he can even live for a certain period. Savi Gabizon creates an original cinematic universe: an Israeli microcosmos, the sensitive network of fragile relations within a family. One day, another man appears in the life of the family who looks like an exact double of the (dead) husband, and Savi Gabizon's direction is so refined and credible that we believe that the family believes in a sort of resurrection of the husband. The structure of the narration is worked-out, the actors are marvelous. No doubt that "Nina's Tragedies (A Very Sad Comedy)" will make its way at least through the festival circuit. By the way, not included in the festival was Amos Gitai's new film "Alila" which will probably be seen in Venice in September.

Yes, the festival presents a skillfully selected overview on new international films, highly interesting for the Jerusalem public. But it focuses clearly on Israeli cinema, offering it an important and widely accepted platform. This is a festival of political preference set by Lia van Leer. Time to speak about her. She is the center of the festival. She is the festival. She established and heads the Jerusalem Cinematheque — Israel Film Archive. Twenty years ago, she founded the festival. You can meet her in all major events, from Cannes to Berlin and Venice: a charming elderly lady with an enormous enthusiasm for cinema. While younger colleagues have long since returned to their hotels to catch some sleep, she's still indefatigably running to cinemas to discover films and to roam through receptions to convince people to send their movies to Jerusalem. Soon, she will celebrate her 80th birthday. In Jerusalem, she was omnipresent, the first one to appear in the morning on the spot, the last one leaving a late dinner or party. She participated in all the panels (among them a two-days conference of the Sundance Institute), visited all screenings, hopped at the coffee shop from one table to the next — somehow, she must have the ability of multiplying herself and beaming herself around. She's the perfect, adorable and loveable host, having time to talk to all festival guests (and sometime even convincing them to visit the Chagall windows in a hospital outside the city or the Holocaust Memorial or the Israel Museum, instead of seeing films. She even managed to send some guests to the Dead Sea). She built up a marvelous team of enthusiastic colleagues – no wonder that at the closing ceremony she was showered with flowers. Lia: we all, guests of your wonderful festival, join with pleasure in this declaration of love.

Klaus Eder
© FIPRESCI 2003

Klaus Eder attended the Jerusalem Film Festival (July 10-19, 2003) as a member of the jury deciding the Wolgin Awards for Israeli feature films, documentaries and short films. His co-jurors were Geoffrey Gilmore (the Sundance Institute), the filmmakers Barbara Hammer, Uri Barbash and Shemi Zarhin, as well as Raya Morgan (Hebrew University).

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