Eli & Ben

Eli & Ben (2008) is an Israeli film written and directed by Ori Ravid. It stars the excellent young actor Yuval Shevach, as a decent, creative, 12-year-old boy. He's intelligent, popular, and getting good grades. (Not great grades--he isn't really a scholar.)

Suddenly, things start to fall apart. One of his friends is bullied and hurt by Eli's closest friend, and the beautiful girl he adores scorns his attentions. Then the real bombshell explodes--Eli's father, Ben, is accused of taking a bribe. (He's the city architect, and he may have taken money from a powerful developer in exchange for approving some dubious building plans.)

What begins as an Israeli preteen sitcom turns into serious stuff. if convicted, Ben faces 18 months in prison.

These plot threads play themselves out in the remainder of the film. There are a few formulaic scenes--Ben running, and then running some more, or Ben riding his bicycle faster and faster. However, those scenes are just glitches in an otherwise fascinating and sophisticated film. (Israeli films have been nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscars three years in a row. The Israeli film industry is gaining international recognition.)

We saw this movie at the exceptionally well-organized Rochester Jewish Film Festival. However, it will work well on DVD as well. Note: The film is carrying an anemic 6.7 IMDb weighted average. I consider it much better than that, and I can't understand why the films at the RJFF have been systematically underrated. My advice is to ignore the low rating, seek out this film, and decide for yourself.

The script is rich in human relationships, including an unusual number of suspenseful ones where we don't know which direction the character's decision-- even if it's a minor character-- will take the movie in. Much revolves around the hero's best buddy, who is a schoolyard bully and perhaps doesn't deserve his friendship. Who ever heard of a movie hero whose best friend is a bully? Or a movie where ditching your best buddy is an option? But the little hero, Eli, finds that in his upscale neighborhood corruption and intimidation are far from unknown. In fact, maybe his father doesn't exactly deserve to be his father. Maybe Eli doesn't deserve his girlfriend. Things, as Eli says near the start of the movie, are beginning to fall apart, and he's a little young for saving the day; he doesn't even drink coffee yet. I'm surprised that the film wasn't more successful commercially. Maybe the problem is that the worst thing about it is the title. The fact that the father's name is Ben-- which means "son" in Hebrew and evidently is a comment on how he is cornered by his own father, his own son, and his own immaturity-- makes for a spot of confusion, as does the other half of the title, the son's unusual name, which needs extra punctuation to even be pronounced correctly in Hebrew.