Medurat Hashevet (2004)

Saw the DVD at our Moadon Lev-Echad Wednesday.
September 9, 2005A Time of Tangled Transition in Israel, and in a Family By STEPHEN HOLDEN nytimes.com
Set in 1981 during the early days of the Israeli settler movement, Joseph Cedar's film "Campfire" has come under fire from religious Jews for its portrayal of a group of early settlers on the West Bank as repressive, self-righteous hypocrites. As Mr. Cedar remarks dryly in the film's production notes, the early settler movement was peopled by "mostly middle-class citizens who used the political atmosphere of the time as an excuse to take advantage of what they considered a good real estate opportunity."
Applying for membership in a rural settlement that has yet to be built is Rachel Gerlik (Michaela Eshet), a lonely, 42-year-old widowed mother of two teenage girls. Acceptance of this fractured family into the community requires that Rachel remarry as quickly as possible. Both children are bitterly opposed to her joining the group.
Beyond casting a jaundiced eye at the community's oppressive communalism, "Campfire" neither endorses nor opposes the settler movement that since 1981 has become an incendiary issue in Israel. But that Mr. Cedar is an Orthodox Jew and former Israeli paratrooper stationed on the West Bank has added to the sting of betrayal felt by the religious conservatives who have boycotted his film.
Despite that hostility, "Campfire" has been warmly embraced by Israel's secular Jews. It won five Israeli Academy Awards, including best picture, director and screenplay, and was that country's Oscar nominee for best foreign film of 2005.
Its broader political implications within Israel notwithstanding, "Campfire" offers an outsider an intimate portrait of family members living in uncomfortably close proximity and straining against one another during a difficult period of transition. Rachel, a tough, attractive woman whose husband died of cancer a year earlier, is tugged this way and that by conflicting desires. She longs for the security and companionship of the community. But because her first marriage was unhappy, she is unwilling to settle for another husband who won't deliver the romantic fireworks the first one didn't provide.
The older daughter, Esti (Maya Maron), blames her father's rapid deterioration from his disease on what she sees as Rachel's neglect and enrages her mother by taking a soldier to the house for sex. The younger daughter, 15-year-old Tami (Hani Furstenberg), is shy but curious about boys; this curiosity precipitates the crisis at the center of the film.
The couple heading the acceptance committee - smug, portly Motkeh (Assi Dayan) and his cold, pragmatic wife, Shula (Edith Teperson) - are the kind of rigid, narrow-minded people you wouldn't want to tangle with on a co-op board. Shula arranges dates for Rachel with two possible candidates for a husband, but when Rachel balks at choosing either one, she loses patience. Neither Yossi (Moshe Ivgy), a kindly 50-year-old bus driver and sad sack who has never slept with a woman and who falls instantly in love with Rachel, nor Moshe (Yehoram Gaon), a plump, self-satisfied cantor, comes close to meeting her pyrotechnical standards.
A crisis erupts when Tami follows a boy on whom she has a crush to a raucous gathering at a holiday bonfire, where a pack of teenage boys are singing lewd songs. The bully of the gang grabs Tami, forces kisses on her, then coerces the other boys to do the same, promising to release her only if she will go further.
This ugly scene of peer pressure and molestation has instant repercussions. As word of the incident spreads, graffiti is sprayed on the outside of the Gerlik house, calling Tami a slut, and Rachel's ability to control her daughters is questioned by the acceptance committee. Motkeh urges Rachel to forget the incident and not report it to the police.
If "Campfire" is solidly acted, it is visually drab and has a haphazard narrative momentum. Even when it visits the site of the future settlement, the camera finds little beauty in the landscape. The movie finally comes apart in a cheery, saccharine finale that feels tacked on, the way a cheap mint consumed after an unpalatable meal is supposed to erase the bad taste with a jolt of sugar.
Campfire
Opens today in New York.
Written (in Hebrew, with English subtitles) and directed by Joseph Cedar; director of photography, Ofer Inov; edited by Einat Glaser-Zarhin; music by Ofer Shalchin; produced by David Mandil and Eyal Shiray; released by Film Movement. Running time: 96 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Michaela Eshet (Rachel Gerlik), Hani Furstenberg (Tami Gerlik), Moshe Ivgy (Yossi), Maya Maron (Esti), Assi Dayan (Motkeh), Edith Teperson (Shula), Oshri Cohen (Rafi) and Yehoram Gaon (Moshe Weinstock).