Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mizrahi-Ashkenazic political divide within Israel. The fi lm gained critical and commercial
success and was nominated for an Oscar.
Another three fi lms together symbolize the ideological change in Israeli cinema in the late
1970s: Ram Levy's
Hirbet Hiz'ah
(The Ruined Village; 1978) was the fi rst Israeli fi lm to deal with
the Palestinian Arab narrative of the 1948 War of Independence. The fi lm was based on a story
by the distinguished writer Yizhar Smilansky and aroused a public and political debate when
it was broadcast on Israeli television. The second fi lm was Judd Ne'eman's
Paratroopers
(1977),
which subverted the image of the Sabra warrior by telling the story of the abuse and eventual
suicide of a young recruit. The third fi lm,
Wooden Gun
(Ilan Moshenson, 1978), dealt with the
trauma of Holocaust survivors for the fi rst time.
Prominent among the fi lms examining the Israel-Arab confl ict was
Avanti Popolo
(1986),
directed by Rafi Bukai and considered to be one of the best Israeli fi lms ever made. This sur-
realist tragicomedy tells the story of two Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai desert, right after the
declaration of the ceasefi re ending the Six-Day War, who are trying to fi nd their way home. In
the course of their wanderings, the lost soldiers encounter a reconnaissance squad of the victo-
rious Israeli army, which opens fi re on them. In the hope of obtaining some water from them,
the Egyptians run toward the Israelis. When the Israelis prevent them from approaching the
water container in their possession, one of the Egyptians, a stage actor by profession, begins
reciting Shylock's famous monologue from Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice
, “I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? . . .
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not
die?” In response, one of the startled Israeli soldiers mumbles: “He's got his part mixed up.”
Instead of the fearless, morally superior fi ghting Sabra (as represented in the national-heroic
fi lms of the 1950s and 1960s), these fi lms present a faded, shattered image. The Israeli warrior is
damaged both physically and mentally, confi ned to a wheelchair or shell-shocked.
The Vulture
(Yaki Yosha, 1981), based on a book by Yoram Kanyuk, deals with the moral corruption of an
Israeli offi cer and the cynical use of the commemoration of war heroes.
Don't Give a Damn
(Shmuel Imberman, 1987), based on a book by Dan Ben Amotz, is about a young soldier, para-
lyzed from the waist down, who abuses his family and close friends.
Buba
(Doll; Ze'ev Revah,
1987) features as protagonist a secluded man who came out of the Yom Kippur War with shell
shock; and
The Night Soldier
(Dan Wollman, 1984) focuses on a young man whose exemption
from military service leads him to murder soldiers. All these fi lms are manifestations of a criti-
cal perspective characterizing Israeli cinema after the Yom Kippur and Lebanon Wars.
Parallel to this demystifi cation of the Israeli soldier was a shift in the representation of the
Palestinian. Among the fi lms made were
Hamsin
(Daniel Wachsmann, 1982), about the ex-
propriation of Palestinian land in the northern Galilee;
Fellow Travelers
(Judd Ne'eman, 1983),
whose protagonist is an Israeli political activist who fi nds himself chased by both Israeli secu-
rity agents and Palestinian extremists; and
A Very Narrow Bridge
(Nissim Dayan, 1985), which
tells a Romeo and Juliet - like story about an Israeli military reservist and a young Palestin-
ian widow.
Smile of the Lamb
(Shimon Dotan, 1986), based on David Grossman's best-selling
novel, tells the story of friendship between an Israeli military doctor in the West Bank and an
elderly Palestinian man; and Haim Bouzaglo's
Fictive Marriage
(1988), in which a Jerusalem
