Daniel Gordis - Dispatches from an Anxious State » Movie

Beaufort (2007)

Daniel Gordis — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:59:16 +0000

This is the movie that brought the first Lebanon war to Israeli screens.� There is simply no film that does a better job of explaining why Israelis have become war-weary, cynical about the utility of additional military expeditions.� It’s not a terribly gory movie.� But it’s tense, and sad.� And a feeling of futility pervades.� Watch this film, and you’ll never see the work of young Israeli soldiers in quite the same way.

Noodle (2007)

Daniel Gordis — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:38:49 +0000

Miri, thirty-seven years old, is a twice-widowed, El Al flight attendant. She has her life carefully organized and moderated, until she discovered an abandoned Chinese boy whose foreign worker mother has been deported by Israel immigration authorities.� Miri decides to reunite the family, and embarks on an amusing and touching journey.� A lovely window into “normal” Israel people, and slice of Israeli life that we don’t often see in the world of film.

My Father My Lord (2007)

Daniel Gordis — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:33:31 +0000

A film about the Haredi community, this wonderful film (by David Volach) is a fabulous lens into that world, showing with sensitivity and deftness the struggle with faith that a Haredi rabbi and his wife face when they are confronted by a devastating tragedy.� It’s a universal movie in that way, but it’s also a wonderful way of getting insight into the Haredi world, its customs and beliefs.� Unforgettable.

Turn Left at the End of the World (2004)

Daniel Gordis — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:24:02 +0000

Set at the end of the 1960′s, this movie, which was a great success in Israel, portrays the travails of the Northern African immigrants who were sent to dilapidated towns “at the end of the world” as Israel struggled to settled the masses arriving at its borders.� Uprooted from their native lands, having lost their former social and familial structures, and struggling to raise children in a society they themselves do not understand, the characters in this gorgeous movie struggle to find love, meaning and the prospect of a better future.� An honest, charming and sad look at the story of Israel’s Northern African immigrants, now a defining portion of our political and social map.

The Syrian Bride (2004)

Daniel Gordis — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:23:06 +0000

Our common perceptions notwithstanding, Israel is not only a country of Jews. There are Chritians, Moslems, and Druze, as well. Amal, a Druze woman in an Israeli village, is about to marry a Syrian man and cross the border. When she does, she will never be able to return. The movie tells a personal story of love frustrated by politics and diplomats, with charm and grace.� One of the first films that exhibited the great strides recently made in the Israel film industry.

Campfire (2004)

Daniel Gordis — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:18:54 +0000

It’s the early 1980′s, and a single mother decides to move with her two daughters to a religious-Zionist settlement in the “occupied territories.” The movie casts a not always flattering lens on the passions and beliefs of the community, shown through the trials of the two teenage daughters and the way they are treated by a host of characters. Painful, sometimes funny, and always poignant.

Yossi and Jagger (2002)

Daniel Gordis — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:15:38 +0000

Many movies had dealt with the Israel Defense Forces. But this is the first, to my knowledge, to address the trials and tribulations of a gay couple serving in the IDF. It’s a haunting, beautiful and sad movie, and raises harrowing questions about the real costs of the “macho” environment of the IDF. A classic in Israel, and a wonderful window on yet another dimension of Israeli life that is not often part of our discourse about Israel and its challenges.

Broken Wings (2002)

Daniel Gordis — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:14:24 +0000

Israel is not all about war, army, immigration. Sometimes it’s just about regular people trying to live regular lives. This film, about a single mother raising her teenage children alone, isn’t at all critical of Israel. Indeed, it’s not “about” Israel. But because it takes place in Israel, it offers a window into parts of Israeli life, even while dealing with a subject much more universal.� Memorable and beautifully done.

Foreign Sister (2000)

Daniel Gordis — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:12:30 +0000

Foreign workers are a major dimension of Israeli life, and not a necessarily pleasant one. Israel has allowed thousands of people to enter to work here, but their status is often grey, and their conditions sometimes deplorable. This movie actually addresses the case of foreign workers in reasonable conditions, and even so, points to the underbelly of Israel’s underclass, an issues Israel is eventually going to have to confront.� See this movie, and you’ll understand the issue better than ever before.