pearleaf

In order to completely understand this film, a viewer needs to understand Israel. For those who do not know Israel as a real place and Israelis as real people this film should be instructive.

It is a coming-of-age film about members of a Kibbutz (communal farm) in 1977. The characters are all young adults coming home from their military duty having experienced combat. Israelis are drafted after high school with few exceptions. It should not be forgotten that Israel has existed under threat of war for its entire history.

These young people are decompressing from their combat experience and just beginning to move on with their lives. Few Americans have experienced combat and fewer still are in communities where everyone has experienced it. This is not, in that sense, like the coming-of-age films we are familiar with in this country. The film also includes women characters who are finding their identities as women.

It should be noted that Kissufim is a real place. It is one of the communities massacred on October 7 last year.

I just finished reading Roszak's book. First of all this author is not well known but important. He invented the term "counter-culture." This book includes elements of Umberto Eco, Marshall MacLuhan, Robert Anton Wilson, Thomas Pynchon, and Dan Brown. Except for the last name, these references may be obscure or unknown. Knowing these authors' work will add to appreciation of what Roszak created, but it would not be necessary to enjoy reading the book. Who are these guys? Eco is famous for intellectual novels. The most famous of these was made into a film - "Name of the Rose." His second novel, "Foucault's Pendulum" is about vast historical conspiracies. MacLuhan was a prophetic academic who described the media as we know them now. Wilson is most famous for the 60s cult novel trilogy "The Illuminati" which is about an extended historical conspiracy. Pynchon is not an easy writer to read but his early novels were about historical conspiracies. Dan Brown is, of course, the author of "The DaVinci Code," which is the latest and most popular example of paranoid stories about huge historical conspiracies.

The conspiracy in "Flicker" is about the Cathars. Google that name and you will find both historical materials and some pretty outrageous Internet conspiracy stuff.

This is also a book about film as an obsession. It is a great read for IMDb activists and lurkers.

"Flicker" is one of only three novels Roszak has published and it is a fun read as well as being filled with interesting ideas and a lot of stuff that is quite perceptive and deep. I can't imagine how this book can effectively be turned into a 2 hour movie. Based on his "Pi" and "The Fountain" I think Aronofsky is the right director for this film.

I knew Ben Hayeem. "The Black Banana" was his one feature-length film. He had won numerous awards for his shorts which used to be seen regularly in Greenwich Village movie houses. He was a satirist and humorist but was also passionate about his vision of peace and of sanity in religion. He always wanted to make a movie about Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed coming back to earth and commenting on how their religions turned out.

"The Black Banana" had one legitimate screening in Israel at the first Jerusalem Film Festival. It was immediately banned by the Orthodox-rabbi dominated censorship board. He protested by picketing nude in front of the ministry where that board met. The film was banned because of a scene in a ritual bath and a dream sequence in which the hero was whipped with t'fillin straps. This was considered blasphemous and I doubt even the most adventurous Israeli director has since filmed such scenes.

What was really revolutionary about "The Black Banana" was Ben's use of Palestinian actors in the West Bank, which was a first for an Israeli film. The whole point of this film was the kinship between Jews and Arabs and the film has dialogue in Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, and English.

The film is flawed, due mostly to a low budget, even by the standards of independent film. There are continuity problems and much of it seemed dated even when it first came out. Nonetheless it was still being shown, sometimes by Ben himself, at kibbutzim and other tiny venues. We here would call it a cult classic and many a film in that genre is weak in production values.

I would love to see it again and share it with friends and congregants (I am a Reform Rabbi). Alas Ben died of cancer before he got his sole feature released as a DVD. Maybe it is still not too late.

BTW His shorts should also be collected and released on DVD. No apologies need to be made about them. They are original and very funny.