{"id":26016,"date":"2013-05-13T22:37:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T05:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=26016"},"modified":"2013-05-22T06:22:35","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T13:22:35","slug":"26016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=26016","title":{"rendered":"Docaviv 2013: House of Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

The process of immigration to Israel \u2013 of Jewish immigration to Israel, to be precise \u2013 is described in English as Absorption; in Hebrew, it is merely reception. It is easy to assume that this is merely a matter of semantics, but after watching the candid House of Fun<\/em>, one may very well think otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"House<\/a>
House of Fun by Vitali Krivich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Screened in the Israeli Competition at the just-ended DocAviv, the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, House of Fun<\/em> (the Hebrew title, \u05e0\u05e4\u05dc\u05d0 \u05e4\u05d4, \u201cwonderful here,\u201d taken from the film’s theme song by Habiluim<\/a>, has more of an ironic sting) takes an honest look at the process of absorption\/reception; what we see is discomfiting in the main. Anchored around the experiences of a group of new migrants from the former republics of the Soviet Union, director Vitali Krivich captures, with candour, a cohort of teenagers trying to make sense of themselves and their lives in an alien landscape.<\/p>\n

The mechanics of immigration to Israel are notoriously difficult to get to grips with \u2013 and I say this as an immigrant myself, albeit non-Jewish, and as such with an asterix beside my name, so to speak. Many native Israelis, I\u2019ve found, assume that migration is part extension of the Taglit-inspired dream (sun, sand and sex, essentially), and part actualisation of a natural process of homecoming.\u00a0 If only.<\/p>\n

Krivich\u2019s subjects are young adults, that much is true. And as participants on a state-sponsored programme, they are Jewish, at least in the eyes of the law. But that\u2019s where fantasy and reality part company. Even from the start, there are hints of ambivalence, at odds with the presumption of ideological fortification. One observes it was either Israel or learning a crappy profession back home. He\u2019d discovered, almost by chance, that he qualified for the immigration programme because his grandmother was Jewish. Another says that her father suggested they visit the Jewish Agency offices, just to explore the options. Next thing she knows, he tells her that it\u2019s time to get packing. Over my dead body, her mother retorts. \u201cBut I\u2019m here. And she\u2019s still alive,\u201d the girl deadpans to camera.<\/p>\n

Even when ideological soundness is in place, migration is a delicate and difficult act even at the best of times. (Trust me on this point.) But the framework that welcomes them is fantastically unresponsive. At their absorption centre in Carmiel, they are presented with a rigid routine for the day. From 7.00 to 23.00, your life will be fully regulated, their course director tells them. We believe in routine, he tells them. No drugs and no drinking or they\u2019ll be expelled from the programme, he warns. But what happens if that is the case: do they get sent back home?<\/p>\n

Teenagers being teenagers, their highly regimented daily routine is merely the framework against which boundaries can be tested. They are as rowdy and as dissolute as one might expect of any bunch of young people thrown together far away from home. But then, they live a curiously self contained and isolated existence within the absorption centre. It isn\u2019t any surprise that they are chaffing at the reins much of the time. In any case, the much vaunted \u201croutine\u201d seems uninspired at best.<\/p>\n

Living in Israel, one has always had the sensation of a peculiar tension between Olim Hadashim, new migrants, and veteran Israelis. The former are expected to shake the diaspora dust off their shoes and get on with the business of living; the former want, need, a guiding hand to reaffirm them in a choice deeply steeped in ideological conviction, but perhaps less by way of practical preparation. Well, supposedly steeped in ideological conviction. Either way, the gap between expectation and reality is hard to negotiate. One puts it thus: \u201cAt home, I was the Jew. Now, I\u2019m the Russian. Ruski, Ruski, Ruski. And I\u2019m not even from Russia!\u201d There\u2019s no clear cut formula for what it takes to become Israeli, but one gets the sense that whatever it is the young migrants are offered at Carmiel, it is not what is needed.<\/p>\n

Whether House of Fun is intended as indictment of the system intended to absorb new migrants is perhaps a moot question. (It is worth pointing out that Krivich\u2019s intimacy with his subjects comes, in part, from being an immigrant himself. Some are able to make the best of the circumstances within which they find themselves.) The interrogative revolves about something more profound: what does it mean to be Israeli, or to become Israeli? The weight of expectations that come with immigration to Israel \u2013 that come with Jewish immigration to Israel, not that there is much of any other kind \u2013 always threaten to overwhelm, and the emotional disintegration that Krivich captures in the last few minutes of the film should stand as a warning.<\/p>\n

Given that Jewish immigration is the lifeblood of the Zionist enterprise (make of this statement what you wish), it seems strange that so much of the process is unknown and untested. Of all the things wrong with Israeli immigration policy, one would have thought that this would be the one to get right. Presuming, in that typically Israeli way, that \u05d4\u05db\u05dc \u05d9\u05d4\u05d9\u05d4 \u05d1\u05e1\u05d3\u05e8, (it\u2019ll all turn out right in the end) is akin to \u2013 as someone famously put it once \u2013 hiding one\u2019s head in the sand, and by doing so exposing one\u2019s thinking parts.<\/p>\n

House of Fun<\/em> will be screened at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on May 18, 22 & 27th. Consult the cinematheque website for details and tickets.<\/p>\n

House of Fun<\/em> (Israel, 2013, 60 min, Hebrew and Russian with Hebrew and English subtitles)
\nWritten and Directed by Vitali Krivich<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The process of immigration to Israel \u2013 of Jewish immigration to Israel, to be precise \u2013 is described in English as Absorption; in Hebrew, it is merely reception. It is easy to assume that this is merely a matter of semantics, but after watching the candid House of Fun, one may very well think otherwise. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}