Reviews

Ronit Elkabetz has a tendency for extravagant characters and in this film portrays yet another. Her loveless marriage in shambles, her old lover back in Israel, she stumbles from one situation to the next as if under no power of her own. Her husband, her children, her neighbors, her lover -- they all seem more like obstacles in her path toward self-actualization than characters she feels anything for.

The narrative is awkward and confused, the characters seem to lack any particular drive, but it still all kind of pulls together because of the emotional immediacy created by explosive bursts from various characters well-captured by the camera in close-up.

While I can't say I thought it was a very good film, it's definitely interesting. If Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz can tighten up their storytelling, their next work should be truly unique.

Debbie Jivan, mother of one of the boys in the film's fifth grade class, picked up on the potential that school-yard fun and games hold for real-life drama. How well do you remember your childhood, particularly the time spent in school? This film will call everything you remember into question.

Jivan follows a fifth grade class around, documenting the up and downs of its social life: the cool kids, the geeks, the bullies and the bullied. One particular boy catches her attention: Omri, a chubby and unkempt boy who, we come to learn, is rather disliked by others in his class, despite (or perhaps due to) being intelligent and well-spoken.

Through Omri's story we are exposed to the true nature of children: the bullying, the outright cruelty and lack of tact, the social cliques which appear to decide your fate (at least for as long as you're a child).

Jivan does a solid job behind the camera and doesn't interfere with the children (though sometimes you dearly wish she would), letting them be as real as they are. The honesty the film projects is sometimes heart-rending, and quite a few of my fellow viewers were moved to anger and disbelief. Personally, especially since we share a first name, I found myself empathizing with Omri -- and you really can't help but empathize. Sure, he wears the same clothes all the time and okay, he does get on your nerves, but the question that remained in my mind after watching the film was "did he become unpopular because he was annoying or was it--shudder to think--the other way around"?