A fictitious friendship is created between two actual women, German poet Else Lasker-Schüler and early Zionist Manya (here named Tonia) Shohat, to explore contrasting environments during the 1920s, a unique period in history "between freedom and destruction". The film takes a while to find its parallel structure and after that is uneven, at best; the scenes showing Zionist settlers carving a future from the unforgiving landscape of Palestine are vivid and convincing, while the superficial depiction of pre-war Berlin is rarely more than pretentious, with the screenplay making the tactical mistake of too often quoting Lasker-Schüler's expressionistic poetry. Time and again the film threatens to lapse into a more conventional drama, but director Amos Gitai's experimental instincts finally win out: the conclusion, with its daring segue into modern Jerusalem, is pure Godard. The film was designed with the precision of an architectural blueprint, but while the intellectual approach is often fascinating, perhaps some emotional involvement with the subject would have made it a more rewarding experience.
2 Reviews
"What do you do with your heart when there is no one to give it to?"
evening17 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
How would it be if two interesting women, representative of their times in modern Jewish history, met and shared a friendship?
Israeli director Amos Gitai imagines such a scenario in this visually stunning and sometimes difficult to follow film based in Germany and the sands of pre-Israel Palestine.
As I learned from imdb, but not from the movie itself, we have characters here based on the lives of radical Russian Jew and early kibbutznik Mania Vilbouchevich Shohat (1880-1961) and German poet Else Lasker-Schuler (1869-1945). Mania is known as Tania in the film and played by Rivka Neuman. Else, also known as the Prince, is portrayed by Lisa Kreuzer.
In an early sequence that is dazzling to view but difficult to understand, we observe an imagined goodbye between Tania, who had plotted against a minister of the czar, and Else, a successful but impoverished artist who wonders how she will cope on her own.
The movie's theatrical beginning features exquisitely made-up members of German choreographer Pina Bausch's troupe. We hear echoes of today's political debates in slogans shouted from the soundstage: "Let us throw the mighty on the trash heap of history!...Down with capitalism and its lackeys!"
We proceed to follow the travails of Tania in the Promised Land, where she and her peers struggle to secure credit for their unconventional farm, and Else in Berlin, as she cringes at the depredations of Hitler's brown shirts, who trash cafes and burn books in the square. "Satan stalks the streets. Why do we stay here?" she asks a lover.
I caught a screening of this film at New York's Museum of Modern Art, which featured an appearance by the understated and quiet-spoken Gitai. He contrasted Tania's anarchic, utopian, and idealistic socialists with the bolshevik contingent, noting they are "still a part of Israel" today. "Cinema is not just show biz, but also to preserve an idea," Gitai said, noting that the kibbutz movement involved a "collision of utopian dreams with reality."
Indeed, in this film we observe Tania and her fellows trying to farm Palestine's rocky terrain -- "We have created a new Jew who can plow his land and defend it himself" -- and the group's gradual shift toward using force to secure land. Tania urges her lover to abandon such strategies -- "You need patience and wisdom to befriend those who hate you" -- but he refuses, and pays the ultimate price. Their exchanges are among the strongest in the film.
Else's trajectory is more introverted, as we overhear her poetic thoughts. She connects with her son, who disappears from the action inexplicably, and a musician who urges her to write more regularly.
"A poet is a fruit tree. It doesn't decide to bear fruit," says Else, explaining her reliance on inspiration. "The angels pour poems in my lip. I need to be bewitched."
Else's companion wants to believe that rising Naziism is a nightmare from which all will awaken one day. And from there the two take separate paths.
This movie unfurls slowly and leaves questions unanswered. I'd have liked to know what happened to Else's beloved child. "I know that soon I must die," Else states after enduring Middle East culture shock. But we never learn why.
The high point of this film captures a long-yearned-for reunion between long-separated friends. It's a moment of exquisite joy! However, this production ends on a dissonant note, as we ponder the perpetual strife between Palestinian and Jew. Gitai expressed sorrow that so little has changed since this movie's release 30 years ago. Let us all pray for peace.
Israeli director Amos Gitai imagines such a scenario in this visually stunning and sometimes difficult to follow film based in Germany and the sands of pre-Israel Palestine.
As I learned from imdb, but not from the movie itself, we have characters here based on the lives of radical Russian Jew and early kibbutznik Mania Vilbouchevich Shohat (1880-1961) and German poet Else Lasker-Schuler (1869-1945). Mania is known as Tania in the film and played by Rivka Neuman. Else, also known as the Prince, is portrayed by Lisa Kreuzer.
In an early sequence that is dazzling to view but difficult to understand, we observe an imagined goodbye between Tania, who had plotted against a minister of the czar, and Else, a successful but impoverished artist who wonders how she will cope on her own.
The movie's theatrical beginning features exquisitely made-up members of German choreographer Pina Bausch's troupe. We hear echoes of today's political debates in slogans shouted from the soundstage: "Let us throw the mighty on the trash heap of history!...Down with capitalism and its lackeys!"
We proceed to follow the travails of Tania in the Promised Land, where she and her peers struggle to secure credit for their unconventional farm, and Else in Berlin, as she cringes at the depredations of Hitler's brown shirts, who trash cafes and burn books in the square. "Satan stalks the streets. Why do we stay here?" she asks a lover.
I caught a screening of this film at New York's Museum of Modern Art, which featured an appearance by the understated and quiet-spoken Gitai. He contrasted Tania's anarchic, utopian, and idealistic socialists with the bolshevik contingent, noting they are "still a part of Israel" today. "Cinema is not just show biz, but also to preserve an idea," Gitai said, noting that the kibbutz movement involved a "collision of utopian dreams with reality."
Indeed, in this film we observe Tania and her fellows trying to farm Palestine's rocky terrain -- "We have created a new Jew who can plow his land and defend it himself" -- and the group's gradual shift toward using force to secure land. Tania urges her lover to abandon such strategies -- "You need patience and wisdom to befriend those who hate you" -- but he refuses, and pays the ultimate price. Their exchanges are among the strongest in the film.
Else's trajectory is more introverted, as we overhear her poetic thoughts. She connects with her son, who disappears from the action inexplicably, and a musician who urges her to write more regularly.
"A poet is a fruit tree. It doesn't decide to bear fruit," says Else, explaining her reliance on inspiration. "The angels pour poems in my lip. I need to be bewitched."
Else's companion wants to believe that rising Naziism is a nightmare from which all will awaken one day. And from there the two take separate paths.
This movie unfurls slowly and leaves questions unanswered. I'd have liked to know what happened to Else's beloved child. "I know that soon I must die," Else states after enduring Middle East culture shock. But we never learn why.
The high point of this film captures a long-yearned-for reunion between long-separated friends. It's a moment of exquisite joy! However, this production ends on a dissonant note, as we ponder the perpetual strife between Palestinian and Jew. Gitai expressed sorrow that so little has changed since this movie's release 30 years ago. Let us all pray for peace.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
