Un brin de chance

Beyond its simplistic narrative and a directing that sometimes strikes for its underwhelming naivety, "A Bit of Luck" is a surprisingly touching film. Well, I was touched anyway. If I wanted to be specific, I would say that the performance of Ze'ev Arach as Jojo the jovial singer with a twice wounded heart is integral to the film's emotional power, I say twice because not every man loses both the woman of his life and his motherland in the span of the same day.

Jojo is Moroccan, a descendant of either the Sepharadic Jews exiled from Spain after the Inquisition or the indigenous Jews who cohabited with the Berbers many centuries before Arabs came. Jojo was born in that land, which is mine as well, and the place where his his father and grandfather are buried will forever be caressed by the salty breeze of the Atlantic Ocean. I suspect the town is Essaouira, known as Mogador, the neighbor to Agadir from which Jojo would sail en route to Israel. Essaouira welcomed most of the Jewish diaspora in Morocco during the eighteenth century, they quickly became pillars of Moroccan society, ensuring banking and trade activities, infulencing arts and crafts, enriching the cooking, and living peacefully with Muslims for the centuries to come. Their quarters were known as "Mellah" either because big stocks of salt ("Malh" in Arabic) were kept in their or for the kinship with the word "milh" meaning "pleasant". These mellahs still exist but have been deserted even since Moroccan jews emigrated to Israel in the early 1950s.

At that time, Morocco was under the French protectorat, none of the Jewish citizens were ever arrested or taken by the Nazis or the Vichy governement, they were subjects of the sultan, under his protection; but the call of the Aliah was the only thing that could even unroot them... among these Jewish emigrants, two would have a daughter who ended up marrying my uncle, together they have a little girl, of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, so history came full circle. And I mention this because my uncle got new insights from his father-in-law, telling them that the emigration to israel wasn't exactly what it's all cracked up to be, he told him about the struggles of Sepharadic Jews, regarded as "Arabs" in the derogatory meaning of the word by the Eureopans, who lived the war, who were part of the Intellegentsia. Less intellectual and more manual, it was hard for them to adapt and many of them returned back or left to other countries, "A Bit of Luck" shows such subtleties that are from the typical image of the "Exodus" odyssey, yes, the Israeli dream (Eretz Israel) carried that hymn for fraternity but I love the way the film treats this material with less lyrism than the singing parts, coming from Arach' own experience (he was born in Morocco and wrote and directed the film).

One of the film's saddest moments shows him weeping at his grandfather's tomb before leaving to Israel, we see him having a nice enchanted evening during a wedding where he's literally entranced by the party song (a Moroccan standard) while his spouse is belly dancing, before she would leave the house and force the husband to sign the "Guett" so she can divorce and lead a new life, leaving Jojo and Vivi alone before they would take the boat. The arrival to Israel and the adaptation are treated with realism without falling into pathos, we see people trying to get some intimacy in the transit camps, we see the barriers of language between Ashkenazi and Sepharads and what I loved the most is that I could get many jokes told in Arabic in the film, as if I was part of that circle. In a way, I could relate to Jojo. An attempt to sing a Moroccan folk song during a German ceremony turned into a hilarious disaster, leading Jojo to a place where he could find his audience among emigrants from North Africa, at that point Vivi becomes the centerpiece of the film and it loses a bit of its energy.

I loved Vivi's voice but she's never capable to steal her father's aura, the best part of her singing comes when she dedicates a song to his father and so he does in a powerful montage. Music takes an important part in the film, starting with the very first scene where Jojo, dressed in typical Moroccan clothes sings a serenade to his "belle", it's obviously a pre-recorded music (and it's the case for many other scenes) but it gives the film the vibrant energy à la Bollywood, as if it took some distance from reality for the sake of that joie de vivre incarnated in Jojo. He's the heart of the film, one of these characters you don't forget easily, and I didn't. Ever since I saw that film with my mother and our nanny and I could see them crying several times, that film for some reason stuck to my memory, resonating like a nostalgic ode to my country and now that I live far from my family and that, for the first time in my life, I didn't go there for summer, I could feel the pain vividly in my heart, even during happy songs.

Now, I wish Zahaven Ben who plays adult Vivi could exude the same kind of raw emotion and deliver more than an above average performance and occasionally flat performance, but what she lacks on screen presence, despite an extraordinary voice, she makes it up with that bond she forms with her father. Jojo and Vivi, two repetitive words that resonated twice in my heart, as a Moroccan and as a father of a little girl.

Zahava Ben plays the daughter of a French/Arabic speaking singer. (Unless you speak French and Arabic there are scene in the film where you will need to read the Hebrew subtitles) Vivi and her father emigrate to Israel where he eventually gets recognised by friends and takes up work singing in a small bar. Vivi works there as a waitress until she gets her lucky break when her father goes blind and she takes over from him. Spotted by a crooked talent scout, who signs her up, she ends up performing lots of shows but doesn't get to receive all the money she has earned. Although the storyline is fairly simplistic, is well played out, but that's not why I've watched it 4 or 5 times. Zahava has an amazing voice.