The Holy Land

The story is about a Jewish boy growing up in an orthodox Jewish family. Like many such environments he is told all the answers of life and religion and is not allowed to explore them for himself. Feeling sexually repressed he is told to go to a brothel by his rabbi to get it out of his system. There he meets and falls in love with a Russian prostitute "Sasha". Throughout the movie he meets many original but believable characters including an M16 touting American Jew that calls himself the "exterminator". Mike an American photojournalist that runs a bar called Mikes Place in Jerusalem. In Mikes place Arabs and Jews drink side by side in a late 60's early 70's hippie kind of atmosphere.

This movie is bazaar but is also believable with it's rich environments around Israel. It shows a realistic version of Israel depicting the Jerusalem night life and life in general. Some religious tension does exist in the film but is not the main focus that Americans often see in CNN and other Hollywood movies.

The movie is about growing up, about religion and the questions we all ask about god, about finding answer's for ourselves, about falling in love, about innocence, about making a life for yourself. The Holy Land takes a deep look into the human experience like none I have ever seen before but does it in a realistic way that doesn't drag you down and depresses you when you are done watching it. By the end of the movie you are thoughtful, a little sad but feel like you just experienced something special.

...but first time writer/director Eitan Gorlin, adapting from his own play, takes too much for granted in the destinies of his characters, a rabbinical student and a Russian prostitute, as well as for the supporting players. There could be so much that could happen to these characters, so many different turns they could take in their relationship, and while it unfolds as something that's somewhat acceptable, it contains an outcome that's a too pre-ordained.

The set-up has minor promise- a rabbinical student is told by his teacher that he should let off some steam, so to speak, by paying a trip to a whorehouse around in Tel Aviv before completely immersing himself in his studies (to get it out of his system). He meets a prostitute, and a Mike, a drunk who owns a bar in Jerusalem and who also gives a place to live for his girl as, soon enough, as well as for the student. Eventually, the student works as a bartender, meets the locals, the radicals, and sees for himself what it's like in such a landscape. Among this, an amicable, though non-sexual relationship commences with the the two opposites- the student awkward and introspective and the prostitute sarcastic and (when she needs to be) emotional.

I can't say that I hated the Holy Land, because there seemed to be a earnest urgency to show, in good intentions, what it's like in the city against the thinking of Americans of the region. It's dangerous terrain, but it's not like how the media here portrays it exactly. And while our lead character comes of age by drinking and smoking and being among these people and all that, he leaves without much of a change in him, or towards the girl he has admired and adored for the length of the picture. In other words, it may be pretty hard to care about these people as much as Gorlin wants us to, and it's evident that it gets too conventional for its own good (the ending, especially, seems like it has a need for closure that it shouldn't of had). Grade: C

Themes of love and trust, played out against a backdrop the horror of which doesn't become clear until the film's final moments, are told in a way that never becomes as predictable as anticipated. Who is the one who really loves? Who is the one who is really honest? This is that increasingly rare jewel: a thought-provoking movie. It is impossible that anyone who actually watches the movie as it unfolds could conclude that it is pro-Palestinian.

No point retelling the plot. The plot is not that important. This film shows true life. Warts and all. The director is not trying to take sides (Arab or Jew), he is not trying to lecture anybody. He just shows a snapshot of life in Israel. He is showing interaction between different people of different backgrounds. The actors are not very known, but all play very well. Acting is superb and the action is completely unpredictable. It is not a "Hollywood" movie so do not expect a typical formula with a happy end. This is a must see important film.

PS: Somebody complained in here about kids used as suicide bombers. In fact this does happen. I remember in the press about a year ago they caught a 13 year old boy all rigged up with bombs at a border crossing. There were hundreds of suicide bombings and attempted bombings. Whether this ruins somebody comfortable theory of this conflict or not, this is the fact of life.

Terrific acting and solid writing bolster this coming-of-age tale set in pre-intifada Israel, a morally corrupt place, where nobody seems to be doing the right thing. Particularly interesting is the teenage prostitute Sacha, through whom we see the psychological effects of continued sexual exploitation. Though this is not a story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, per se, the conflict remains constantly in the background, further complicating the moral landscape. This is not a political film about who's right and who's wrong in the middle east, but rather a personal film about individuals trying to find their way in a particularly insane corner of the world.