Self Made

Shira Geffen was on TV explaining that although she knows it's customary to say what a film is about in a single sentence, she can't say clearly what this film of her own is about. But fools rush in, so I'll say that the gist is in what the protagonist, an artist, is heard saying about her own work: that it explores what happens when people confront the impossibility of undoing what they've done. In this particular case, a woman who can't live with what she's done breaks out of herself-- into amnesia, to begin with. Her adventures, absurd and occasionally amusing, are interleaved with those of an Arab counterpart. Naturally we expect them to cross paths, and they do; but some other narrative conventions are violated and we're left to wonder whether this is the way that Geffen's inspiration works or whether she is trying to pass off a failure to achieve proper narrative as a leap into higher art beyond it. The audience I was with seemed pleased by each episode but disappointed that the episodes didn't add up. Other than the plot, the backgrounds must be remarked on-- some strikingly peppered expanses of color and of grey, and some Beckettesque desert nothingness with a border-crossing in the middle like one of those free-standing doors in a Warner Brothers cartoon landscape. All in all, I found the movie pleasing and somewhat similar to Geffen's previous film (Jellyfish) although unhappier behind its flashes of wackiness.

Michal is an avant garde artist and something of a celebrity in Israel. She is having a bad day, much of it amnesia-related: her husband unexpectedly flew overseas for a conference, her bed collapsed and the replacement appears faulty, interviewers keep unexpectedly appearing at her house (though they do have an appointment), her bath is filled with crabs. Meanwhile, in another part of town Nadine, a Palestinian woman, has just been fired, indirectly due to something Michal said. For Nadine, every day involves checkpoints, body searches and suspicion. Then their paths cross, and their lives are strangely altered.

Initially reasonably interesting and intriguing. There was a slow- burning tension about the movie which made you think the movie was going to be rather profound. There was no apparent focus though, which was a plus initially as I felt that once all the fragments coalesced, everything would be clear and have a point.

Things do come together, but not in a good way. After much pretentious wanderings and imagery, we have the crucial moment of the movie, when Michael and Nadine's paths cross. What happens after that is incredibly silly and far-fetched.

Clearly writer-director Shira Geffen wanted to make a political point, and her only way to get to her destination was to have an incredibly contrived, implausible plot. And the political point is hardly anything new either...

Not worth your time.