Israel @ 60.

Israel officially turned 60 on Thursday, but celebrations and commemorations carry on, culminating in a visit from George W Bush on Tuesday. Ostensibly, he's still planning to bring lasting peace to the Middle East before his term is out.

Regardless, I've been struck all week by resonances, however weak or strong, between coverage of the anniversary (see, for example, this week's Nation, Magnum's photos at Slate or the edition of On Point featuring Etgar Keret) and a number of films opening this weekend that have a little or a lot to do with Israel, Jewish identity or even, perversely, Holocaust-envy (The Memory Thief).

Updated through 5/15.

Seems appropriate to follow Craig's dispatch on Vasermil with notes on two documentaries, followed throughout the next several days with pointers to whatever else might seem to fit in this entry. Since about Tuesday, I've been thinking these two films might make for an interesting match. Turns out, I'm not alone. Bruce Bennett in the New York Sun: "Both the breathless, long-view engagement of history of Refusenik and the expert, emotionally nuanced, and ideologically impartial documentary journalism of Unsettled admirably attest to the fact that contemporary nonfiction filmmaking is often one's best bet for a truly memorable and provocative trip to the local multiplex."

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"When the Israeli government elected to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005, its citizens responded with everything from unadulterated fury to heartbroken resignation to welcome relief," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. "Capturing the full range of these emotions, Adam Hootnick's Unsettled makes the political personal, drawing a scattershot yet intimate picture of a nation divided."

More from Michelle Orange in the Voice on Hootnick's "burningly smart" documentary; and earlier: Ed Gonzalez in Slant.

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"The brave Soviet Jews in Laura Bialis's absorbing portrait of the refusenik movement of the 1960s and 70s had to contend not only with official Soviet repression of religious expression and their own concomitant ignorance of their heritage, but with the virulent anti-Semitism that had flourished in Russia for centuries," writes Ella Taylor in the Voice. "In one respect, however, the dissidents lucked out: Their plight resonated powerfully with civil-rights campaigners, campus radicals, and ethnic-pride activists all over the West."

For Laura Kern, writing in the New York Times, the copious testimony that details the events leading up to the final victory as the Iron Curtain fell in 1989 becomes repetitious, weakening the punch of a remarkable story previously unexplored in such cinematic depth. More often than not, the filmmaking style leans toward the generic, a shame when the subject matter is anything but."

"Refusenik is never able to fully explain why this ongoing oppression of a relatively small group of people captured the imagination of activists and non-activists half a world away, or how they keep the outrage alive for decades," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club. "There's just something about law-abiding citizens being told they can't travel freely that riles people."

"[A]s a celebration of Israel, Laura Bialis's documentary about Russian Jews is bittersweet at best, because it is seen from the eyes of a group that for years has watched its development from the sidelines," writes Paul Schrodt in Slant. "Ringing with spooky familiarity to Cuban immigrants here in the States, Refusenik is the less artful European equivalent to Balseros, giving voice to people who previously had none."

Updates, 5/12: I didn't know about it until James Van Maanen pointed it out, but Israel @ 60 is also the name of a series running at the Film Society of Lincoln Center from May 28 through June 5.

"Can Israel Survive for Another 60 Years?" asks Christopher Hitchens in Slate. Related: Jeffrey Goldberg's cover story for the Atlantic.

Updates, 5/14: June 3 at the Jewish Museum in New York: "But is it Jewish? Contemplating Contemporary Israeli Cinema," with panelists Uri S Cohen, David D'Arcy and Noah Stollman.

"Like Amos Gitai's 1999 Kadosh, Israeli writer-director David Volach's first feature has scores to settle with Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, especially as dominated by literal-minded men," writes Ella Taylor in the Voice. "Unlike Gitai's strident screed, however, My Father, My Lord (unfortunately retitled from the more aptly elliptical Summer Holiday) is a subtly discriminating view from within one family's agonizing spiritual crisis by a secularized filmmaker who grew up one of 20 children in the separatist Haredi community of Jerusalem."

Updates, 5/15: "Israel and Europe" at euro|topics.

"On armies, war and an aging Israel." Novelist Aaron Grunberg in Salon.

A Screengrab list: "The Top 12 Tough Jews in Cinema," parts 1 and 2.

Posted by dwhudson at May 10, 2008 3:09 PM