Le voyage du directeur des ressources humaines

I interpreted Eran Riklis's "Shlihuto shel Ha'Memuneh al Mash'abey Enosh" ("The Human Resources Manager" in English) as a contrast of cultures. The title character has to go to Romania and finds a world totally different from what he's used to in in ultra-modern Israel. If this movie is to be believed, much of rural Romania looks untouched from the 1950s. I've never been there, so I can't vouch for it.

If that was the purpose, then it succeeded. What I liked was hearing the different languages spoken. What I found questionable was that the movie presented a number of topics but didn't seem interested in fleshing them out all the way.

I don't know how much of what the movie omits is in the novel, but as the movie stands, we have several people each of whose lives has taken a turning-- not always for the worse, but usually-- and the details of that past turning are vague. The full Hebrew title would translate as THE MISSION OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER, and his mission takes him to the boondocks of Eastern Europe to meet the bereaved relatives of a murdered employee. It's a big contrast between familiar surroundings and exotic ones, and the contrast may be lost to viewers for whom the place where the action starts, Israel, is exotic anyway. Another thing lost is the word translated as MANAGER in the title. The word in the Hebrew title doesn't really mean "manager," it means "the appointee responsible." The protagonist (Mark Ivanir carries the movie well in this role) has less authority than he would like, and the plot takes him on a shaggy-dog road trip from one misfortune to another, becoming somewhat more light-hearted and philosophical along the way and showing many moments of altruism. There are some improbabilities and a few minor and unfortunate clichés, such as the fellow who-- like so many characters beset by a crisis in a movie-- had been trying to give up smoking. But the movie has momentum, the minor characters are colorful, the music is enjoyable, the sad and comic sides are well balanced, and I for one was left with a hankering to read the book. In English, by the way, the book is called A WOMAN IN JERUSALEM.

The Human Resources Manager (2010), directed by Eran Riklis, is a film that starts off with the death of a Romanian immigrant in Israel. Although her death was not work-related, an investigative reporter--"The Weasel"--decides to publicize the case as an example of the cold-hearted approach of the company to its employees. (The company officials did not realize that she had died.) To counteract the negative publicity, the human resources manager is sent to accompany the body to Romania, and to arrange for burial. Of course, The Weasel shows up in Romania as well.

Naturally, complications ensue. The complications make up the real plot of the film. The HR Manager is out of his element, doesn't speak Romanian, and is a Jew among Christians. He is trying to act in good faith, but personal problems, mechanical problems, and religious problems continue to obstruct progress.

This isn't a bad film, but it's somewhat formulaic, and not always very funny. The acting is good, especially that of Mark Ivanir as the HR manager and Guri Alfi as The Weasel. There are some humorous moments, but the grim, unhappy moments outweigh them.

This wasn't really a memorable film for me. It's worth seeing if it comes your way, but I wouldn't seek it out. We saw it at the excellent Rochester Jewish Film Festival, in the wonderful Dryden theater at George Eastman house. However, there's no reason it shouldn't work as well on the small screen.

I have not read the book. and I am Romanian. so, profound subjective about the reflection of my country in this movie, in the manner of the details first. and the details are real interesting. the dark sketch of Romanian reality is not real fair. or correct. but it uses an old comfortable recipes about East. the way of the human resources manager and photographer in an exotic/savage country is far to be original and reminds the traditional Jewish perspective about the lands, people and differences. the dark humor, the silence, the adventures with the flavor of Hasidic stories, the music,the relations between characters, the mark of globalization and its selfishness, the similarities with the new wave of Romanian cinematography are the basic virtues. but the good point, for me, remains the presence of Irina Petrescu as the grandmother. she has the necessary , precious art to give to the gray atmosphere depth, remembering its roots and theirs fundamental importance.

The title Human Resource Manager of this movie has a task thrust upon him, completely unforeseen and probably not in his or any other HR Manager's job description. A female employee of his company, the largest bread bakery in Jerusalem, is killed in a terrorist attack, under circumstances which bring an embarrassing public relations nightmare to the company. The deceased woman was a recent immigrant from Romania (the actors who play her relatives speak Romanian, but the country is never actually named, only identified as a former communist country in Eastern Europe), and the owner of the bakery sends the HR Manager to escort the body to her homeland. Tagging along on the journey is the same muckraking photojournalist (known to the audience as "The Weasel") who brought the bad PR upon the bakery in the first place.

This movie could have taken any of a number of different tracks without any change in the plot line, in which the HRM encounters several bureaucratic or emotional obstacles upon arriving in Romania and meeting with local officials, the Israeli consul, and the teenage son and ex-husband of the deceased, all the while hoping to make this a short trip to get home in time to chaperone a school trip for his own neglected teenage daughter, and clashing with "The Weasel".

Had this been an American movie, I have could easily pictured it done as a "road/buddy" comedy, a rather slippery slope down which this movie could have descended to a bonehead movie a la A WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S.

At the other end of the spectrum, I did in fact see this movie as part of the Film Movement foreign film subscription series shown at a public library. I'm rather new to that series, and this movie was the third I'd seen. The first two were totally depressing: ILLEGAL, which showed the suffering of a Russian woman illegally in Belgium and undergoing deportation and separation from her teenage son, and THE COLOR OF THE MOUNTAIN, showing the takeover of a small Colombian village by narco-terrorists, and its impact on the children, their families and their school. This movie had the potential of going down that gloomy path as well.

Instead, this was the first one in the series where I actually felt good at the end. The poignancy and pathos of the HRM dealing with the deceased's relatives is well offset by the adventurous challenges he faces getting the deceased to her final resting place, and by the comedic sparring between him and the journalist.

This movie was very nicely balanced. For my own personal tastes, I might have liked it a little better if there had been a touch more comedy, one or two more laugh out loud moments, but if the production crew were wary of the slippery slope to A WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S, I have no quarrel with that call. It's not quite a perfect movie for me, but nearly so.