From the movie "Concerned Citizen" (courtesy of High Films and Sima Films)
A robotic vacuum cleaner is a must-have for every Israeli family in the middle class and above, but it has hardly received any cultural representations yet.
"Concerned Citizen", the film by Idan Hagoel that was released last weekend after a world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and a local premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival, corrects this injustice in its very first scene.
The electrical device is the first thing we see, and it's likely no accident.
He stands here as a symbol of the local bourgeoisie, which the film will dismantle over the next eighty minutes.
Immediately afterwards, we also get to know the proud owner of the vacuum cleaner, and we are not at all surprised to find out who it is.
We are dealing with the poster boys of privileged Israeli liberalism: Ben Verez, a white-haired couple who live together in south Tel Aviv in an apartment decorated to perfection, just like their clothes and their bodies, which one of them takes care of in a gym.
Most of the residents in the neighborhood, meanwhile, are immigrants from Africa, but the real estate agent promises that soon this will change and the area will become "
The gay couple invites a straight couple to dinner.
The man is stressed by what he sees around him on the street, and sweats at the entrance to the building until the gate is opened for him.
The woman is calmer, but makes a face when her friends tell her that they are entering into a surrogacy procedure, and wonders if it is not about exploiting the surrogate.
While the proceedings are in progress, another drama shakes the life of one of the heroes.
He sees from the window one of the immigrants leaning against a tree in the street.
Being a "concerned citizen", as the name of the film implies, and especially being an enlightened liberal who cares more about trees than people, our friend calls the municipality and asks them to take care of it - and they do take care of it, with the disproportionate violence that characterizes our area lately.
Now, the enlightened hero will have to deal with feelings of guilt for the violence that started because of him.
Hot-tempered like the Israeli reality.
From "Concerned Citizen" (Photo: Guy Saaf)
Privileged guilt is probably the most common sentiment in popular culture in recent years - from "The Triangle of Sorrows" through "The White Lotus" to this movie.
The uniqueness of "Concerned Citizen" is that it places all of this in a specific Israeli context, and also that it is not satisfied with just one regret.
The protagonists here feel that they are complicit in various injustices: the exploitation of the surrogate, the gentrification of the neighborhood and the harm to the immigrant leaning against a tree.
To this, Haguel's script adds another layer.
The hero's sense of laxity, who takes a passive part in all the injustices around him instead of rebelling against them, harms his relationship and his sexual performance.
Only when he begins to take responsibility for his actions and what is happening around him, does he reawaken the erotic desire, which in the context of the film is necessary for the operation of the foster care procedure, and thus "Concerned Citizen" also becomes a film about the relationship between the collective and the personal, the political and the sexual.
Haguel's script is complex and brilliant.
He manages to be witty and sharp without condescending to the characters or degrading them, and his performance is brilliant.
The director makes good use of all means of expression.
The film is engrossing throughout its eighty minutes, and full of power, strength and other spirit.
The music is the icing on the cake.
"Concerned Citizen" uses original music written by Zoe Polanski, and adds drama, mystery and melancholy to the result, as well as some familiar hits, whose presence here is surprising.
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About trees and people.
From "Concerned Citizen" (Photo: Guy Saaf)
To demonstrate the character and power of "Concerned Citizen", I would like to use one scene from it.
It won't be a spoiler, because she appears right at the beginning and also in the clips that the film's production released as part of its marketing feature.
Nor does it necessarily have anything to do with the development of the plot.
What is her role?
This is a good question, indicating the ambivalence that exists throughout this pearl.
Well, during the dinner where the protagonists are hosting their straight friends, the pair of guests breaks into a dance, and dances to the tune of "I'm jumping" by the Melol sisters, a song we haven't heard before in an Israeli film and probably didn't expect to see in a festival drama like this, and that's all the beauty of it.
The choreography here is meticulous and mesmerizing.
The duo dances like reined animals, with the lack of taste and tact that characterizes people who are beautiful souls only in theory.
The cinematic expression is full of meaning.
It seems that the two are aware of the existence of the camera, and aware of the existence of the audience.
They dance for us and against us.
They take up all the space and you can't ignore them, but you also can't know what exactly they want.
The dance is aggressive and unpleasant, where does it come from?
Does the aggressiveness express the arrogance of the two privileged, who are convinced that everything belongs to them and that they are the kings of the world?
Or maybe the two are actually consumed by mental and sexual complexes and the dance releases their frustrations?
A few more such dizzying and enigmatic scenes will follow.
They all testify to Haguel's intelligence, his cinematic talent, and his ability to fuse form and content, images and sounds, camera and movement.
In all of them there is a statement and power, destruction and venom, but also enough space for the audience to insert their own interpretation.
All these make "Concerned Citizen" one of the best Israeli films of recent years.
Then, suddenly, they dance to the tunes of "The Melol Sisters".
From "Concerned Citizen" (Photo: Guy Saaf)
The crazy pair are played by Oriya Yablonovsky and Lena Freifeld, who also excelled this year in "Valeria Gets Married".
Ben is played by Shlomi Bartonov, usually a theater star, and next to him is Ariel Wolff who plays Raz.
They are all great.
The African immigrants have less place in the script, except for one scene where we get to hear the personal story of the victim.
This is the weakness of "Concerned Citizen", which does not develop its non-white characters, and mainly uses them as a background for the story of the privileged.
On the other hand, this is, after all, a low-budget Israeli film with a length of 80 minutes, and it is clear that there is not enough canvas for additional storylines.
Be that as it may, the real star of the film is of course the robotic vacuum cleaner, who appears in the first act, returns in the second act and appears again in the third, and this time his symbolic role changes.
In the end, it symbolizes not only the bourgeoisie of the heroes, but also their approach to life.
They litter, dirty and make a mess, then someone comes and cleans for them, so they can continue their daily routine and make more children who will grow up to be like them.
culture
Theater
film review
Tags
Israeli cinema
Berlin Festival