Nuzhat al-Fuad

Very Strange Movie, Very interesting, Located in Jaffa including Christian Hospice where Cancer Patients only get Pain Killers and wait for Death. I felt that in contrast to "Masa Alunkot" which is realistic, Nuzhat is a Mystery, A movie on many spheres. Many parts are in Arabic (not only Hebrew). I have seen the young Efrat Gosh as a Singer, she is very radical. Muhammad Bakri recently directed the controversial Jenin, Jenin 2002. He has been a long time in Israeli -Palestinian Cinema. I felt that Nuzhat is a bit Issoteric. Instead of a Documentary this many faceted film hints at many subjects. Yael Hadar as Odelia also does an interesting part. I think I am exaggerating if the "Only Good thing in Israel lately is the Cinema". The Movie was made in 2006 Before Lebanon 2 War. I live in Jaffa since September 2006, Soon after that War. I recognize the Streets and Yaffa Cafe. I live further down on Yeffet Street. One of the Best 10 is Sam's Vote. August 2009 Met Efrat last week she told me DVD is coming out. Looking forward to the DVD as this is a movie I want to see many times.

In Nuzhat al-Fuad, Judd Ne'eman has managed the impossible. While making a film about art (fiction, music, painting) that concerns itself with such intellectual questions as the relationship between the real and the imagined and the ability of human beings to defy fate, death, and God, he has created a visually stunning, emotionally wrenching, and wholly unforgettable film. It is amazing to watch a film that deliberately insists on reminding its audience that this is an artifice, a created piece, an invention, nevertheless engage the emotions of its audience so completely.

That we should see the film as storytelling rather than as eavesdropping on Life is urged on us repeatedly. We are told that one of the many pre-texts to the film is the story (and music) of Scheherazade, the young woman who keeps her execution at bay by telling intertwined stories with no end. We are shown a troupe of players emerging from a building, costumed, made-up, and ready to entertain. Iraqi storytellers and players in traditional costume are shown reenacting scenes. Actors play multiple roles. Characters dead in one scene seem to live in others. One of the story arcs is about a young woman whose scripts for an ongoing soap opera are, Pirandello-like, protested by her actors (and characters) as tyranny. But despite these constant reminders that this is at most a world of "magical realism," the narrative proves so absorbing and the acting so affecting, that the viewer falls willingly into the emotional details of the mythical (and melodramatic) tale.

At its simplest, the story poses the interesting question whether Cervantes lives because he has created Don Quixote or if Don Quixote owes his immortality to Cervantes. And the film answers the question in favor of Don Quixote. It argues that as the created—Don Quixote has made Cervantes immortal, so does the art of the storyteller, the painter, the singer, and the musician lend immortality to the artists. But the film that teaches this lesson is lush, detailed, and evocative. There are visually stunning moments such as the two young women on either side of a glass window, the painter and paintings in the hospice, the scenes on the beach where the story of a family's disintegration and its effect on the individuals is presented with a few powerful images. With the aural and visual splendor of The Arabian Nights and the tradition of Iraqi storytelling in the background, the film tells the story of two young women. One writes the scripts for the TV serial that features the other. The actress is fiercely independent. When she finds herself pregnant, she calmly decides to abort. The married scriptwriter, competing with and loving her father at the same time, is in the hospital at the same time dealing with complications to her pregnancy. The two young women do not like each other, but are destined to have their stories parallel and sometimes intersect. One faces madness, the other life-threatening illness. Yes, we know it is not real, we are constantly reminded that even the illnesses are symbolic, we realize that this is very much like a soap opera, but so powerful is the acting and so skillfully wrapped in the mythic dimensions of the ancient tale that we are entranced by their stories.

In Nuzhat al-Faud (the title comes from the story reenacted from The Arabian Nights) Ne'eman combines the high art of the philosopher with the low art of daily melodrama to create an absorbing, breathtaking experience. The sound track is particularly marvelous, utilizing voice-over, ambient sounds, and classical music, punctuated by the conventions of the ancient storyteller.

It is amazing how little known this film is. Actually it's director is probably the most famous unknown director in Israel. When he received the Israel prize for his work earlier this year many people did not know him at all. He made five movies all over, but some of them were road opening for the Israeli cinema in the direct and sincere approach with the harsh realities of the country and of the area, and other were predicting films to be made later by famous directors ('Masa Alunkot' - dealing with the individual oppressed by militarism) or even events like the political assassination in Israel as in 'Rehovot Ha'Etmol'.

'Nuzhat-al-Fuad' had no commercial distribution that I remember, and only one TV channel here broadcast it after Neeman got the prize a few months ago. It tells a story of two women - Odelia (Yael Hadar) is a director having to deal with a famous father and the trauma of the suicide of her mother during childhood, the other - Tamara (Efrat Gosh) is a rebellious character which is hit by a fatal malady and enters some kind of institution that provides relief for the final days of the patients Here she enters a world that mixes reality and dream, group treatment (?) and fantasy, songs, dance, legends all between the walls and under the sun of the painfully beautiful city of Jaffa, in a space where language and nationality do not matter any longer, which is populated just by human beings with their pains and desire to live.

Camera work is beautiful, the soundtrack mixes classical and contemporary music, with songs written especially for the film, in a manner that reminds Brecht's songs. Acting is wonderful, beyond the two two actresses that I mentioned Mohammed Bakri does a wonderful job in the double role of the father of Odelia and of the painter in the asylum that Tamara meets and connects with. This beautiful and sensible film deserves a much better fate and reception than it has enjoyed until now.