London Film Fest Day 13 - LEBANON

LEBANON is the Venice Golden Lion winning debut feature from Israeli director Samuel Maoz. It is, simply put, the most brutal film I have seen during this festival and also the best. It makes THE ROAD look like light family entertainment. Samuel Maoz’s story is almost entirely set within the confines of an Israeli tank participating in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. We meet the crew as they meet each other - some matter-of-fact about the task ahead, some incredibly nervous about making it out alive. They are already in the tank, so the atmosphere is dark, dank and claustrophobic. For the next hour and a half, all we will see of the outside world is what they see through their view-finder, and very rarely, when they dare to poke their head out of the tank. The initial raid happens at breakfast time. The newbie tank driver is reluctant to fire upon the civilians he sees in his view finder. The on the ground troops he is supporting finish the job for him. Through the view finder we pick up truly horrific sights: mutilated people - both Isaraeli and Lebanese and butchered animals. After the raid, the tank loses its way and is marooned in Syrian held territory. The tank is ordered to wait for Phalangish (Christian Arab) help. The Phalangist who arrives is even more savage than the tank commander, threatening the Lebanon prisoner-of-war, being held inside the tank, with torture. The young Israeli soldiers are uncomprehending (literally because of the language barrier) and also because they are just not used to this degree of brutality.

What I love about LEBANON is its unflinching gaze and the even-handedness with which it portrays both Israeli and Lebanese. The formal constraint of depicting life within the tank is sustained marvellously. Simply put, this is a superb film.

LEBANON opened in Israel earlier this year and played Venice and Toronto. It opens in France on January 13th.

London Film Fest Day 7 - EYES WIDE OPEN

EYES WIDE OPEN is Haim Tabakman's immensely impressive and brave debut feature about the difficulty of reconciling a private life within a community of strict orthodoxy. To be sure, Tabakman has explored this issue by depicting a homosexual love affair within an Orthodox community in Jerusalem, but the issues would apply equally to, say, young girls threatened with "honour" violence in the UK, or, say, gays in the Catholic church. This is a film about people who cannot simply cut the ties from the communities who reject them and flee to a more tolerant place, but want to live out both their private life and their faith. The inability to choose on or the other is the tragedy.

The movie succeeds because it is resolutely NOT sensationalist but actually rather quiet and introspective and intimate. Zohar Strauss plays a butcher who is playing a role in his father's butcher's shop and as a husband and father. He seems to be a genuinely kind man, and a man of faith. He falls for a handsome young man (Ran Danker) who has already been expelled from one religious community. Aaron is warned by the Rabbi and more menacingly by a self-appointed group of young men. There is a particularly beautiful shot where the two are arguing in front of the shop about whether the relationship is tenable. A van pulls away and in the reflection we see that this whole argument has taken place in front of the menacing youths. And at the same time, the story is widened out, to show a young girl acquiesce to an arranged marriage.

This really is a powerful, sensitive relationship drama that shows a situation that is more widely relevant that a reductive plot summary might suggest. It is not at all sensationalist or exploitative, but authentic, credible, well-acted and well-photographed. It deserves to be widely seen.

EYES WIDE OPEN / EYNAIM PEKUKHOT played Cannes and Toronto 2009 and opened in September in France and Israel. It opens in Belgium on December 2nd.