Shoshana

"Sometimes you don't know who the spider is and who is the fly."

In the shadows of city streets as well as the human heart, deep and conflicting emotions simmer beneath the surface of Palestine under British authority in the 1930s. Predators become prey for the crime of loving too little, loving too much, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A Zionist girl (Shoshana) and British boy (Timothy), equally well-connected, navigate these dark spaces together and apart. Alliances and relationships form and crumble like shifting winds. You think you know someone until their knife is in your back.

Based on real events and people, Shoshana is a thrilling look at how idealism breaks people and nations apart and brings them together. Shot along the seacoast of rural Italy which in certain ways resembles Tel Aviv of the 1930s, Shoshana tells the story of two lovers that parallels the simultaneous dissolution and formation of Israel. The director and main actors were present at the second showing of the film the day after the world premiere. Irina Starshenbaum (Shoshana) said it was hard to stay in great shape when there was such good Italian food available all the time. While I wish the chemistry was better between the actors and that the main theme was clearer, the film highlighted an important truth in relationships between people as well as countries; it matters what sort of thing is being built.

Follows two British policemen, Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) and Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling), as they hunt down charismatic poet and Zionist independence fighter Avraham Stern (Aury Alby), who was plotting to oust the British authorities. Meanwhile, Thomas falls in love with beautiful Israeli Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum).

The film features a whirlwind romance, intrigue, betrayal, chases and historic events. Michael Witterbottom (24 Hour Party People) directs this romantic drama with a political thriller background, which tells the story of Shoshana Borochovm, daughter of one of the founders of Socialist Zionism and a British police superintendent named Thomas Wilkin. Giving a detailed description of the Irgun, it was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated during the British Mandate of Palestine, between 1931 and 1948. It was established as a militant branch of the Haganah ("The Defense"). The Irgun has been considered a terrorist organization. The Irgun was the predecessor of the nationalist political party Herut ("Freedom"), which gave rise to the current Likud party.

Based on historical events when Palestine was a quiet province of the Ottoman Empire, where there was a Jewish community. At the end of the 19th century, the trickle of Jews began due to the diaspora, all of them travelling to Palestine determined to build their country in the Promised Land and under the Balfour Declaration. After the end of the First World War and the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles, control of Palestine was granted under a Mandate to Great Britain, and the trickle of Israeli immigrants became a flood, and by 1936, at the beginning of the Arab revolt, there were already more than half a million Jews in Palestine. This is the volatile context in which this story moves, which also functions as a portrait of why and how the current conflicts in the Middle East began. And adding specific historical references on screen, such as: On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was founded. The apartment where Avraham Stern lived is now a museum in his honor. Geoffrey Morton successfully brought several libel suits against accusations of having murdered Stern, after Palestine he served in Trinidad and Africa. Shoshana Borochov lived in Tel Aviv until her death at the age of 93 in 2005.

The film was well directed by Michael Winterbottom. His films often deal with social and/or political issues such as Go Now (1995), Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), Wonderland (1999), In This World (2002) or This Shoshana (2023). His films often make references, visual and/or spoken, to the works of Werner Herzog. Due to the improvisational element of much of his work, his films often use hand-held - sometimes digital - photography with crudely edited jumps between scenes and locations, e.g.: Butterfly Kiss (1995), Wonderland (1999), With or Without You (1999), The Claim (2000), 24 Hour Party People (2002), In This World (2002), 9 Songs (2004). He made his directorial debut with two documentaries about Ingmar Bergman. His production of Love Lies Bleeding won the Silver Prize at the 1993 New York Television Festival and the 4-part series 'Family' has collected numerous awards at film and television festivals around the world. He also directed the opening story for the first series of the multi-award-winning Cracker. Winterbottom has made all kinds of genres: drama (Wonderland), period films (Jude), war (Welcome to Sarajevo), western (The Claim), musical comedy (24 Hours Party), documentary fiction (In This World), erotica (9 Songs), even science fiction (Code 46) and film noir (The Killer Inside Me). Shoshana's score: 6.5/10. Good and interesting movie. Worth watching.

This is a curiously undercooked iteration of a story that well exemplifies that expression about one man's terrorist being another's freedom fighter. It's the underwhelming Douglas Booth who is Wilkin, a police detective based in British-administered Palestine and a man who has a semblance of decency to him. His boss "Chambers" (Ian Hart) is a bit more of a player, though - and he drafts in the much more "hands-on" Morton (the unremarkable Harry Melling) to get results more quickly - not least the apprehension of Stern (Aury Alby) who is determined to establish a Jewish homeland and doesn't much care which tactics he uses to accomplish that. The personal story is largely historical fact, so there's no real jeopardy here, but it's an interesting postulation on just how the British tried to administer a region and a population that had no interest in being administered, and that was being logistically manipulated with the shortest of term vision for anyone's future. Palestinian and Jew could agree on just one thing - get the UK out, but thereafter there was little consensus as the bombs and the bullets continued to fly. To be honest, I found the contribution of the eponymous woman (Irina Starshenbaum) to be almost incidental to what is essentially a rather dryly brutal story of a territory that always has been and will be fought over. It looks fine, but somehow it's all just a little too bitty - episodic, even, and it needed a bigger hitter to deliver the narrative more engagingly and convincingly. Pity.

I have no idea why this is getting anything higher than a 6 star rating from some of these reviews. I watched this movie based on those reviews and I was so upset I had to log in right after watching just to warn people, this movie is endless talking which minimum plot. It was like you follow the main character as they travel around and bump into minor characters and have a emotional conversation that means nothing for the next scene. I enjoy movies with zero action as much as the next movie snob but it has to have a good plot and feel like an actual film and not time wasting scenes. The only reason I even gave it 4 stars was for some of the settings but I am honestly debating on giving just 1 star.

Watched this during the Red Lorry Film Festival in Mumbai. The movie depicts a certain part of the independence struggle that led to the downfall of the British Empire in West Asia, leading to the formation of independent states of Israel and Palestine.

One of the most genius things the makers have achieved is that they haven't taken any sides, be it the British, the Jews or the Arabs. Each faction is depicted in contrasting ways, and none can be seen as a hero or a villain. Considering the super-sensitivity of this topic right now, not taking sides could be considered as an advantage for this movie.

The weakness of the movie lies in the character development. None of the characters get well-defined enough to have a substantial effect on the viewers, and by the end of it, you don't really feel much for any of the characters, dead or alive.

Overall : 7/10.