Educational Media Reviews Online

Making a film sometimes is part of a personal catharsis and, when it functions in this role, the product is important documentation for the filmmaker as well as those helping her to achieve a positive outcome. It does not necessarily mean, though, that such a film is an appropriate document to be sent out into the world. This film is one that, in the opinion of this reviewer, should have stayed home.

Set mainly in Israel - one of the film's drawbacks is that it is often difficult to tell where one is supposed to be - but also in the U.S., Italy, and other assorted unidentified locales, the film consists mainly of what appear to be Aviad family home movie excerpts from many periods in time interspersed with archival footage from a large number of sources listed in the credits. The filmmaker never establishes the kind of trust with her viewers that assures us we are seeing the real locations, people, and situations being discussed. Instead, the archival footage might be real or it might simply be illustrative, establishing the right flavor for the discussion. Sometimes, we recognize the people; sometimes we cannot. Sometimes, the archival footage seems to be old home movies made, perhaps, by the filmmaker's forbears; sometimes, it is obviously professional, similar to that used in numerous documentaries about Jews in Europe and Israel.

The plot of the piece seems to be the dilemma of Ms. Aviad, an Israeli filmmaker, and her family over whether to leave home and return to the United States, where they have lived before, or remain in Israel and face an uncertain and possibly violent future. Between short bursts of conversation with Shimshon, Ms. Aviad's husband, who seems to be fed up with the situation in Israel, reminiscing about the Holocaust and Israeli pioneer days by the couple's parents, and violent sound bites from Israeli TV news (not clips from the news, but close-ups of the TV playing in the Aviad's living room), are numerous shots of her children, generally being themselves, but often looking mildly embarrassed and self-conscious. At one point, the son Ms. Aviad is worried about having to send to the Israeli Defence Force simply closes his door, after asking his mother why she has to film all the time. The children are always leaving the house, mostly to go to school, and the most portentous word, repeated throughout the film, is "Bye."

Toward the end of the film we see an empty apartment and a truck full of boxes. Soon after, we see a kitchen looking much like what we have previously seen and Ms. Aviad saying goodbye to her children, who descend a staircase and go out into a street that looks so much like the one we saw before that it was hard to be certain they had, in fact, moved back to the United States.

If Ms. Aviad is conflicted about where to live and bring up her children safely, and wants to blame it on Israeli politics, she can do so. However, her film reveals little more than her fears and her anger. It does not seem to provide a learning experience about her situation, her country, or its inhabitants--Jews or Arabs--and, thus, is not recommended.