Mishehu Larutz Ito

This movie's first half is just too funny for me, the second part is also funny but not as much. and no, I am not confusing this movie with another, this review is about Mishehu Larutz Ito.

I was worried that much would be lost in adaptation from the excellent novel. This was not the case; the characters and scenes were as i had visualised them.

The acting was good; i felt a lot of empathy towards the 2 central characters ( 3 if you include the dog ) . There was also a little bit of humour, especially in the portrayal of the 'bad' character.

The plot is not bulletproof and totally realistic but then this is partly a fantasy. Jerusalem serves as a good backdrop for though it is a big city, you are always only away from a strange wadi or uncultivated area that is required for the movie.

The flashbacks were seamlessly handled and easy to comprehend.

There was perhaps a short period in the middle of the film where i felt things were dragging on a bit. By the end though i have to confess i was slightly teary and overcome with emotion.

I hope that people not from the local market can also enjoy this film

I don't mind being kept in suspense a bit, but the questions left open produce a weariness after a while and for me a kind of crisis came when the female lead, who was supposed to be a promising singer, turned out to be-- in contrast to what for the purpose of the plot she is supposed to be-- merely mediocre. I lost just about my only reason for remaining interested. Maybe the book carries you along by virtue of the quality of writing, and maybe those who have read the book are carried along through the movie by their prior familiarity with the story and characters. I was pleased to see that eventually the open questions are resolved (and that the promising guitarist sounds a lot better than the promising singer, by the way), but aspects of the resolution were a little hokey.

Very enjoyable especially for locals who recognize every alleyway and every coffee bar.well cast and acted and the young newcomer who plays Tamar definitely has star quality.Not sure how it will go over in the foreign market.But a local hit for sure! also great plot.Story tells of a young teenager who runs away from home,winds up in hostel for homeless kids all hoping to be the next big music discovery. She ends up being exploited by a no-good drug dealer and loses her dog. A boy, Assaf, comes looking for her, the dog leading him through her usual Jerusalem haunts, the pizzeria, the place downtown where she hangs out with other young music hopefuls and so on....Shan't spoil the ending

This film wasn't easy to track down. I wanted to watch it because I had really enjoyed and admired the novel it's based on, but Amazon didn't have copies of it; evidently it didn't get a lot of distribution outside Israel. I finally managed to track it down to an Israeli online shop.

It's the sort of film that people outside Israel should probably watch, because among other things it lifts the lid on what a corrupt, nasty and dangerous place Israel has become - in other words, it shows just how much Israel can be like any other country. The basic story is of Asaf, a young guy who works for a dog shelter (I think he's meant to be an Israeli Arab, but I'm not certain), trying to reunite a stray dog with its owner. The owner is Tamar, a teenage girl on a mysterious mission. The opening scene, in which Tamar goes into a barbershop and gets her beautiful head of hair shaved off, is shocking in a low-key sort of way. The rest of the film, like the book, is a mixture of adventure story and social commentary.

It's a good movie, with fine performances from all but especially from the two leads, Bar Belfer as Tamar and Yonatan Bar-Or as Asaf. Quite a lot of the suspense comes from the tension about whether or not the two main characters are ever actually going to meet.

David Grossman, author of the original novel, is one of the best novelists working today and this is one of the toughest and most unsentimental Israeli movies I've seen. Since most of the Israeli movies I've seen have tended to be more than a bit sentimental, that's a major mark in its favour. If there's anything wrong with it, it's that it sometimes seems a little far-fetched; the novel was more believable, for some reason. But it's still a very fine story, and it's a shame that it hasn't been seen much outside Israel; most Irish films (I'm Irish) get more hype, but are far more flimsy.