Going into this film, I must admit that I was intrigued. The notion of an Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva student falling for a prostitute would be enough to bait even the most disinterested moviegoers. Indeed, after seeing the film I was still somewhat amused by its premise.
However, sitting in a dark room watching the film collapse in on itself was a disappointing experience to say the least.
I suppose my hopes were high, because most narrative films I have seen about Israel have, at best, been mediocre. Israel is a country that is extensively misrepresented in the media, and this film, with its unconventional premise, could have redressed this balance.
In the media, Israel is only seen in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, either as the powerful aggressor, or the victim of terror. In reality, Israel is an extremely complex place where the cultural chasms between the secular and the religious play as significant a role in the fabric of society as the issues that separate Israelis from Palestinians. Unfortunately, while flirting with these issues, The Holy Land proves to be yet another missed opportunity for providing insight into this little-understood country.
The Holy Land is the story of Mendy (Oren Rehany) who lives with his parents in Bnei Brak, an Ultra-Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv. Early on, Mendy is distracted from his religious studies by his sexuality. In a surprising conference with his spiritual mentor, Mendy is encouraged to go to Tel Aviv in order to seek out a prostitute, so that he may “get it out of his system” and come back with a clear mind. Mendy promptly follows this advice and goes to a Tel Aviv strip club, where he meets Sasha (Tchelet Semel), a Russian immigrant who gives “massages” to willing customers. Upon one of his visits to the club, Mendy encounters Mike (Saul Stein), an American expatriate who owns a bar in Jerusalem. Mike befriends Mendy and eventually convinces him to move into his Jerusalem apartment. In the meantime, Mendy falls in love with Sasha, and begins to shed his religious identity.
As a film junkie and an art student, there are many things I am willing to forgive of a first-time writer/director. The script, for example goes back and forth between English and Hebrew at random, but this could be a stylistic decision. I don’t agree with it, but I can imagine a reasonable argument being made for it. The fact that the quality of the cinematography is not fantastic is forgivable too, because after all, director Eitan Gorlin used film and didn’t give in to today’s digital temptations. I would even be generous enough to allow for the pathetic sound design.
However, two aspects of this film that are inexcusable: the butcher-knife editing and the sloppy writing. Movement between scenes is a jarring experience and often it is so poor that I found myself having to actively ignore the transitions in order to understand the story. This deficiency, coupled with a series of other bad editing decisions, leads to a pace that is nonsensical.
Additionally, characters are not given enough time to develop. At the beginning of the movie, viewers are meant to infer from two lightning-quick scenes that Mendy is having issues with his religious lifestyle. The motivation for his struggle is not explained, aside from a scene in which he masturbates before a Sabbath meal, and another in which he reads Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. Finally viewers are baffled by the surprise ending (I’m not going to ruin it here), because although it is by no means an impossible event, it is so improbable, within the world that Gorlin creates, that the audience is left puzzled. The characters simply don’t support the cause and effect logic necessary for such an extreme conclusion.
The film does have its redeeming qualities — it certainly gets part of the story right. In an over-the-top scene at a military checkpoint, Israeli soldiers force Palestinians to hop on one foot while holding a finger to their noses. This makes the important point that Palestinians are routinely humiliated at Israeli checkpoints.
Additionally, The Holy Land allows viewers to peer into the dynamic and iconoclastic underground of Jerusalem, a place where identities are transformed in a magnificent meeting place of the material and the spiritual. Mike’s Bar is actually a real-life place in Jerusalem where Jews and Arabs of all walks of life stop in for a drink and it is clear that Gorlin is an insider. The scenes in the bar in which a militant settler nicknamed “the exterminator” and an Israeli Arab have a drink together are rare glimpses of a world that never gets airtime, but really does exist if just beneath the polarized surface of Israeli society.
However, if authenticity is The Holy Land’s strong suit, it is all but drowned out by its technical and artistic failures. Picasso is quoted as having said that art is a lie that tells the truth. Gorlin should learn to lie more convincingly before he takes on his next project.