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Bethlehem (Film Review)
Jan. 12th, 2014 09:25 amThis movie was shown last year at the Venice Film Festival and just got released in Germany (no idea about the rest of the world). Its director, Yuval Adler, is an Israeli Jew, while its co-scriptwriter, Ali Waked, is a Muslim. I mention this because any film that's set in Israel with one of its main characters a Palestinian, the other a Jew, is bound to have its credentials questioned, and that's before we get to the inevitable "this side is glorified/demonized" accusations.
Bethlehem, genre wise, is a tense thriller in the Le Carré mode. Seventeen years old Sanfur is the overlooked and issue-ridden younger brother of one of the most wanted Palestinian terrorists/guerilla fighters, Ibrahim. Two years earlier, when he was 15, he got recruited by an Israeli agent, Razi, who in the present day action of the movie is Sanfur's handler, and their relationship is the heart of the film. It's not hard to figure out what, despite the lethal (and that's after torture) fate in store for Palestinian collaborators if they're discovered, made Sanfur do this despite sharing the general family hero worship of his older brother - more than money, jeans and a teenage sense of immortality, what Razi gives him is attention and affection, whereas his real father is not only utterly focused on Ibrahim but also chronically disappointed in Sanfur. The affection on Razi's part isn't faked. He could see the use of Sanfur as a long term asset originally but over the last two years has spent more time with him than with his own children and grown genuinely attached while also of course never forgetting why he recruited the kid in the first place. (Sanfur's code name is, none too subtle, "Esau".) If you know your thrillers you can guess this is headed for some spectacular clashes of loyalties, mutual betrayals and attempts to be true to emotional ties and respective causes, and a gutwrenching finale.
As opposed to most tv shows and films tackling what's often quaintly referred to as "Middle Eastern conflicts", Bethlehem has the inner Palestininan divisions and rivalries (Hamas versus Palestinian Authority versus Al Aksa Brigades) as plot points, instead of presenting the Palestinians as a unified whole (it even makes a class point because Ibrahim's second-in-command, Al Badawi, is a Beduin and looked down upon as such). Both of the main actors - Tsahi Halevy (who I understand is a singer-songwriter otherwise) as Razi, and Shadi Ma'ri as Sanfur(a 17 years old from Nazareth, according to my newspaper) are very good so it surprised me to learn they were new to screen acting, and that goes for the supporting characters as well. There are no car chases and an utter lack of high tech - when Razi gave Sanfur a new cell phone at one point, I expected the Israel's subsequently to listen in to every conversation Sanfur has, but no such scene ever occured -; instead, there is a lot of footwork involved. (Though at one point I tried to coax out of my vague memories of the two Israel visits 've made whether you can really walk from Bethlehem to Jerusalem - if you manage to sneak around the check points - in what appeared to be a few hours.) There is also some scathing black humor - at one point Al Musa (the main Palestinian Authority character in the film), trying to get one of the Al Aksa characters to his side, blithely asks: "What's your opinion on women's rights?"' Gunman: "Women?" Al Musa: "The Belgians have sent us money to improve the situation of Palestinian women and form a comittee. I can make you a member and put you on the salary list.") Speaking about women, there are a few in the film - Razi's fellow agent Maya, his wife, and Sanfur's mother - but they are minor characters; no Bechdel test passing here, but I have to say I honestly didn't mind, because the movie was that good.
Trivia point: I saw the film in the original language(es) (Arab and Hebrew), with subtitles; this reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask when watching the first season of Hatufim as well, which is that both the Israeli and Palestinian characters only use the familiar "du" in German with each other, regardless of station (i.e. when Razi and his superior at the Secret Service talk, they use the "du" as well), so I was wondering whether Arab and Hebrew, like current day English, have only the one mode of address.
Politics: aside from the above mentioned Palestinian in-fighting, there's the obvious. You have the Israelis trying to provent the next suicide bombing, and you have the army casually demolishing Palestinian houses as a punishment exercise; the daily humilations and the glorification of "martyrdom" . In the very first scene, Sanfur and a couple of other teenagers dare each other to shoot at each other wearing supposedly gun proof vests, which in another country probably would come across as stupid teenage bravado a la Rebel without a Cause's car-racing into the abyss, but here in the specific Palestinian context comes across as yet another manifestation of a society that has gotten to the point where lethal suicide is seen as the ultimate standard of courage and honour. And as opposed to your traditional East/West Cold War scenario, defection from one side to the other isn't a way out, either. The claustrophic sense of being eternally locked up with each other in a state of permanent warfare is palpable, with no way of escape. And the human capacity for love is yet another weapon in that war.
In conclusion: a very powerful film, worth watching.
Bethlehem, genre wise, is a tense thriller in the Le Carré mode. Seventeen years old Sanfur is the overlooked and issue-ridden younger brother of one of the most wanted Palestinian terrorists/guerilla fighters, Ibrahim. Two years earlier, when he was 15, he got recruited by an Israeli agent, Razi, who in the present day action of the movie is Sanfur's handler, and their relationship is the heart of the film. It's not hard to figure out what, despite the lethal (and that's after torture) fate in store for Palestinian collaborators if they're discovered, made Sanfur do this despite sharing the general family hero worship of his older brother - more than money, jeans and a teenage sense of immortality, what Razi gives him is attention and affection, whereas his real father is not only utterly focused on Ibrahim but also chronically disappointed in Sanfur. The affection on Razi's part isn't faked. He could see the use of Sanfur as a long term asset originally but over the last two years has spent more time with him than with his own children and grown genuinely attached while also of course never forgetting why he recruited the kid in the first place. (Sanfur's code name is, none too subtle, "Esau".) If you know your thrillers you can guess this is headed for some spectacular clashes of loyalties, mutual betrayals and attempts to be true to emotional ties and respective causes, and a gutwrenching finale.
As opposed to most tv shows and films tackling what's often quaintly referred to as "Middle Eastern conflicts", Bethlehem has the inner Palestininan divisions and rivalries (Hamas versus Palestinian Authority versus Al Aksa Brigades) as plot points, instead of presenting the Palestinians as a unified whole (it even makes a class point because Ibrahim's second-in-command, Al Badawi, is a Beduin and looked down upon as such). Both of the main actors - Tsahi Halevy (who I understand is a singer-songwriter otherwise) as Razi, and Shadi Ma'ri as Sanfur(a 17 years old from Nazareth, according to my newspaper) are very good so it surprised me to learn they were new to screen acting, and that goes for the supporting characters as well. There are no car chases and an utter lack of high tech - when Razi gave Sanfur a new cell phone at one point, I expected the Israel's subsequently to listen in to every conversation Sanfur has, but no such scene ever occured -; instead, there is a lot of footwork involved. (Though at one point I tried to coax out of my vague memories of the two Israel visits 've made whether you can really walk from Bethlehem to Jerusalem - if you manage to sneak around the check points - in what appeared to be a few hours.) There is also some scathing black humor - at one point Al Musa (the main Palestinian Authority character in the film), trying to get one of the Al Aksa characters to his side, blithely asks: "What's your opinion on women's rights?"' Gunman: "Women?" Al Musa: "The Belgians have sent us money to improve the situation of Palestinian women and form a comittee. I can make you a member and put you on the salary list.") Speaking about women, there are a few in the film - Razi's fellow agent Maya, his wife, and Sanfur's mother - but they are minor characters; no Bechdel test passing here, but I have to say I honestly didn't mind, because the movie was that good.
Trivia point: I saw the film in the original language(es) (Arab and Hebrew), with subtitles; this reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask when watching the first season of Hatufim as well, which is that both the Israeli and Palestinian characters only use the familiar "du" in German with each other, regardless of station (i.e. when Razi and his superior at the Secret Service talk, they use the "du" as well), so I was wondering whether Arab and Hebrew, like current day English, have only the one mode of address.
Politics: aside from the above mentioned Palestinian in-fighting, there's the obvious. You have the Israelis trying to provent the next suicide bombing, and you have the army casually demolishing Palestinian houses as a punishment exercise; the daily humilations and the glorification of "martyrdom" . In the very first scene, Sanfur and a couple of other teenagers dare each other to shoot at each other wearing supposedly gun proof vests, which in another country probably would come across as stupid teenage bravado a la Rebel without a Cause's car-racing into the abyss, but here in the specific Palestinian context comes across as yet another manifestation of a society that has gotten to the point where lethal suicide is seen as the ultimate standard of courage and honour. And as opposed to your traditional East/West Cold War scenario, defection from one side to the other isn't a way out, either. The claustrophic sense of being eternally locked up with each other in a state of permanent warfare is palpable, with no way of escape. And the human capacity for love is yet another weapon in that war.
In conclusion: a very powerful film, worth watching.
