Behind Me Olive Trees (Pascale Abou Jamra 2012)



We might not know that on the 25th of May 2000 when the Israeli army withdrew from South Lebanon, the South Lebanese Army, known as th "Lahd Army," which had cooperated with them, was forced to evacuate to Israel. Some fled the country. Others surrendered to the Lebanese government. The rest remain in Israel. This 20-minute film is about someone involved in these events as a child, 20-year-old Mariam (played by Lebanese writer-director Abou Jamra) who returns to her native south Lebanon (where the film was shot) and deals with a confused identity, having lived half her life in Israel, and difficult life, being rejected by the locals. Voiceover narration fills in the details, and the images are beautiful and authentic. Mariam's father had been a member of the Lahd Army. He ran away, and her mother died, after her brother, now ten, was born, so she lived on her own with her brother. Behind Me Olvie Trees (خلفي شجر الزيتون) was simply a masters degree graduation film in film studies at the Lebanese University of Fine-Arts (ALBA), Beirut, but it has perfect pitch -- it's simple, plangent, and heart-rending -- and has gotten Pascale Abou Jamra international recognition -- Cannes. The film is listed (as Derrière moi les oliviers) on Allociné, though details are missing.

Length: 20 mins.

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PASCALE ABOU JAMRA (INTERVIEW, "MONTE CARLO DOUALIYA")

Red Flag (Alex Karpovsky 2012)



The idea of going on a trip with someone who's far from being the first person invited reminds one of Michael Winterbottom's Steve Coogan vehicle The Trip, a really funny movie -- which this isn't. According to Steve Seitz in the New York Times when the two showed at Lincoln Center early this year, Red Flag, a low-keyed, depressed autobiographical film by and about the actor Alex Karpovsky, "may be baggy and solipsistic" but "goes down more easily" than a more fictionalized effort called Rubberneck that was paired with it at the Elinor Bunin Theater. Karpovsky would be nowhere, Seitz says, without Lena Durham, who cast him as the barman in her big hit HBO show "Girls." Here, he gets kicked out by his girlfriend and has to go alone on a film tour in the south for something about woodpeckers (an actual film of his) being saved from extinction. Red Flag may be an actual cri de coeur from Karpovsky, who's seen as mildly suicidal here, but it's hard to see any new age mumblecore Woody Allen in Red Flag as some suggest. This is miles and miles from Woody Allen, and not even good mumblecore. As Seitz wrote, Karpovsky needs to stick with Lena Durham and only she can really save him, for the moment, from extinction. But he was in Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax and Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture has a part in the Coen brother's new film, which did very well at Cannes, Inside Llewyn Davis. Maybe his "acclaimed" debut film, The Hole Story, maybe even Woodpecker, are really better than Red Flag,, even if Rubberneck isn't. Maybe if he's not Woody Allen, which he certainly isn't, he's a downbeat Jewish Steve Coogan (if there could be such a thing). Actually he's neither, but I am glad to be aware of him, just in case.

Online critic Jordan Hoffman wrote a realistic rundown on this and two other Karpovsky short features. I suppose Hoffman is right in saying that Karpovsky's features feel like "glorified shorts." Hence it does fit with the SFJFF shorts.

Short feature length: 85 mins.

That Woman (Ed Dick 2012)



This is an odd one, with an arresting beginning, and a neat, finely structured trajectory. Witty, English, set in Northwest London, Jewish. "When I lost my girlfriend, I sat shiva for a week. Not for her, you understand. Kate wasn't even Jewish, let alone dead. I sat shiva for our relationship. I wanted to give it a proper sendoff. . ." This is a droll beginning, and it's well presented. This begins with a frontal look at Danny's anguished face. The family humor Danny and sit with him. "If it'll help him get over it quicker, where's the harm?" The payoff, that to get the bereaved Danny out to playing the field again his mum sets him up in a blind date with Monica Lowinsky, that woman, may seem more than a bit too high concept. Then he runs into Kate again. He's not really in a dating mood these days, he says; he's not sure the time is quite right. Maybe it's not right for Monica either. Very well written (by Amy Rosnthal), acted (by the whole cast, especially Ben Caplan as Danny) and edited (by Justin Krish). But one is more impressed than moved.

It's well sot too, though. The cinematographer, Sam Care, is a BFI "Brits to Watch" selection and has won awards. He has shot a great many shorts, and also some features. Sam Care's feature, In Our Name, directed by Brian Walsh, is critically acclaimed. You may watch some of his music videos here and watch the intro to the short film here.

Length: 13 mins.

Kenny Hotz's Triumph of the Will (2011)


KENNY HOLTZ IN FRONT OF HIS MOSQUE

This self-narrated "documentary," is Episode 3 - Children of Abraham" from the eponymous 2011 Canadian TV series, is like the films of Mads Brügger (of Red Chapel and The Ambassador), but more jokey and less risky, but still remarkable if it's true. The filmmaker, Kenny Hotz, sets himself a task which requires assuming an identity, or here, simply a stance, and convincing a bunch of people of something that might get him into trouble. He tells people he is sick of Jews and Muslims being hostile to each other, and he wants to be the first Jew to provide Muslims with a mosque. In the course of time covered in the film, he does that. But as with Mads Brügger only more so, the question arises: is this real? Hotz finds a property in Chinatown, actually a former Chinese funeral parlor (the city is not identified, but the film is Canadian, and maybe it's Toronto) that has a nice layout for a mosque. He finds an imam, he raises funds from Jewish sources, or tries to (he is often turned down), he approaches some Muslim sources, like the Afghan consul, and he goes ahead and turns the space into a mosque. It all seems pretty iffy, but at least he has an artist friend do a really nice sign for the front and calls it "Peace Mosque." Then Muslim worshipers are found, and with Kenny initially on hand, a prayer service and sermon are conducted. But are these real worshipers? Who knows. Some of the humor, as when Kenny talks about not having space for the usual shawarma stands in the mosque, is in dubious taste. More than that, it risks offending muslims. Maybe if Kenny succeeds, he offends everybody. This seems a dubious venture. But the mosque looks convincing. I guess it really happened, and the question is, what happens to the mosque now? Kenny doesn't want it. And when you think about it, this was a very bold and ambitious project that challenged conventional social and cultural assumptions a lot. Like most comics, Kenny Holtz seems a bit crazy and only a slightly crazy person could do a thing like this. In an interview for the online publication Vice, Kenny says (his math a bit off: it's more like 69 years ago): "Would anyone really consider it? I paint a place, hang a sign, and people come to pray in it. Everyone else keeps killing each other. Fifty years ago if you told some Jew in Auschwitz, "Hey, 50 years from now you're going to be in Israel and your number one trading partners are going to be the Germans," the guy would shit himself. Anything can happen, anything can change."

Length: 22 mins.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.