I do not know if this was done, but I strongly asked the editor of this column that the picture attached to the review of "301 Redeemers" would no longer contain a regular frame from such docu-films, that is, a contemporary close-up testimonial of one of the participants, but of an Israeli warrior : Sometime in the 1970s, in a moment of utter madness, wearing a hospital gown in a place reminiscent of an alienated psychiatric institute, after receiving from the state representatives directly into a vein the cruel sodium pantothel injection.
The one that brings him back, accompanied by slamming doors and images of gunshots and explosives under the auspices of the caregivers, to the POW prison where he spent five months, the nightmare from which he has just survived.
Only such a frame would convey the obvious message that "301 Redeemers" is no longer a warrior confession film from the Yom Kippur War, but a documentary bomb that is supposed to shake a country where the value of human life has always had to be above all.
Certainly and certainly when it comes to the value of the lives of IDF fighters who survived the inferno of captivity.
As with everything the army, even the faces of fighters Yom Kippur War divided into three: Fallen went heroes who won and those who have not seen or heard about what they went through - all of them prisoners and former POWs.
The two parts of the series do justice too late heroes broken spirit, Revealing the dark period in the lives of those who redeemed, who went to war and returned with a triple package from hell: a nightmare on the battlefield, another in the period of torture in Egyptian and Syrian captivity, and for dessert - disconnection from family and children and months of cruel interrogation.
Contrary to other stories we have heard so far, we discover through rare materials from that dark and obscure period, that the State of Israel was swept away by the existential fear of lone warriors who became moral state secrets. That she went too far in treating the redeemed, accusing them of treason and espionage and passing on to them a mask of interrogations and psychiatric nightmares, which were even described by those redeemed as cruel rape.
The director, Tzipi Karlik, could have chosen between creating a firm and accusing investigation and a quiet and painful document, and she wisely and efficiently chose the second option.
The power of the film does not come from the narrator's narration or editorial manipulations, but from the protagonists' own confessions (literally) - from the exhaustion, silence and sadness that resonate in their voices. Even the soundtrack does not play a role of creating horror. There is no need for that. The interweaving of the confessions themselves on two and a half evenings creates an exciting melody.
The protagonists of the film do not want to close an account and blame, but only that their true story will be heard, and the director allows them to do just that.
Another noteworthy point is the correct use of editing to create a dialogue of gaps: the gap between the solemn documentation of the return of the prisoners and the kisses to Golda; The gap of those chilling confessions that the exact same people had been torn from their families and taken to closed camps, moments after the festive photos were published; The gap between the patriotic "Carmel Diaries" videos, where they were called heroes, and the titles "traitor" or "spy" were hurled at them behind closed doors, as soon as they returned.
One of the most shaky passages in the film, after the sadistic archive footage, is the Ministry of Defense's response slide: .. The department treats them with a wide range of tools, such as alternative therapies ... ".
Did you see an apology here?
Neither do we.
"301 redeemed," here 11
