Thursday, October 28, 2004

Israel: not just a depressing CNN headline

I just saw Nina's Tragedies, a recent Israeli movie, with the U of C's "Hebrew Circle." While the promised pizza was not, sadly, anywhere to be found, the movie itself was quite good, lots of surprise twists cancelling out the more predictable trajectories of death and romance among the sick and beautiful, respectively. But more Americans should see movies like this one, ones that show not something "pro" or "anti-Israel," but just show Israel, as seen by any one Israeli director. It's easy to forget when reading headlines with numbers killed on both sides that Israel is, you know, a country, with people who do ordinary things, who are not secretly manipulating the American government--as some have it--but are just sitting in cafes, moping over lost loves, and, in this particular movie, forming crushes on their aunts. (I'm guessing that that last bit is no more common in Israel than elsewhere, though. Or at least I hope not, since something like that wouldn't do much for Israel's P.R.)

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