{"id":27625,"date":"2013-10-02T01:12:15","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T08:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=27625"},"modified":"2013-10-10T10:04:46","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T17:04:46","slug":"bethlehem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=27625","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tzahi<\/a>
Tzahi Halevy and Shadi Mar\u2019i in Yuval Adler’s Bethlehem\/Photo: Vered Adir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It feels a little churlish to be critical about Bethlehem<\/em>, especially when there are many things to be said in favour of the film. There is the charged, engrossing script, for one thing; some exceptional acting, the assured and steady hand of debutant director Yuval Adler at the helm. But there\u2019s yet something just not quite right.<\/p>\n

But first, the storyline: 17 year old Sanfur is the younger brother of a ranking Palestinian militant, the commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigade in Bethlehem. He also happens to be an informant for the Israeli security service, nurtured over two years by the charismatic Razi, convincing yet coercive and manipulative. The relationship between Razi and Sanfur is a curious pas de deux, one predicated as much on emotional support as financial gain. Sanfur is never going to match up to the legend of his esteemed elder brother \u2013 the dismissive treatment he receives from his father makes this quite clear \u2013 and so the relationship between informer and handler shapes into a surrogate parental bond. But Razi is teasing out potentially dangerous information from his charge. These things are never destined to end well.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem<\/em>, the film, is very much a masculine playground, and I\u2019m not sure there is very much one can say about this other than to simply observe that this is the way things are. What this\u00a0 does mean though is that Adler is presented a rich palette of emotional nuance with which to colour out his characters, one that he uses well. Razi and Sanfur (Tsahi Halevy and Shadi Mar\u2019i respectively, Mar’i is not a professional thespian) are both remarkable, vacillating between cocky self-assurance and circumspect self-doubt. Ibrahim, Sanfur\u2019s brother is a largely invisible presence (of necessity, naturally); his deputy, the scheming and ambitious Badawi (Hitham Omari, again a non-professional actor and again magnificent) gives the narrative an intriguingly duplicitous sub-text. Hamas are trying to muscle in on Al-Aqsa territory, even as both try to maintain the work of an organised and unified resistance. Israeli security are trying to crush the resistance. There are women, but their roles are not so much secondary \u2013 which in the context would understandable \u2013 as token, which is less so.<\/p>\n

\"Hitham<\/a>
Hitham Omari as Badawi in Bethlehem\/Photo: Vered Adir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But my reservations about Bethlehem<\/em> \u2013 and I seem very much alone in this, given the film\u2019s success at Haifa<\/a>, Venice and most recently the Israeli Academy Awards<\/a>, meaning that it will be the country\u2019s submission for next year\u2019s Best Foreign Film Oscar \u2013 lie in a different direction. Bethlehem is an exciting, engaging film, evenly paced to a denouement of Shakespearian proportions. Razi discovers that his feeling for his charge are clouding his professional judgement; Sanfur, for his part, can no longer be sure about who he can trust and who he cannot, and is forced into an emotional and pragmatic cul-de-sac. Adler \u2013 who co-wrote the script with veteran Palestinian journalist, Ali Waked \u2013 creates a taut, tight thriller, that scarcely allows the audience room to breathe.<\/p>\n

Still, there is something not of the present about the film. If Bethlehem had been made, say, a decade ago, it would possess the urgency and authenticity of a documentary, testifying to the moral and political ambiguities of the moment. If it were to be made perhaps 10 years from now, it would possess the reflective gravitas that can come with the benefit of hindsight. But now, it feels out of time and out of place. It is superior technical filmmaking, and nobody can \u2013 or should \u2013 take this away from the crew. But because of the context, it feels much more an entertainment than it should. And even though I often feel that we are at risk of being overwhelmed by films that take themselves too seriously, for once I can\u2019t help but feel that the subject matter of Bethlehem deserves a little more.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem
\nDirected by Yuval Adler, Screenplay by Yuval Adler and Ali Waked
\nStarring Shadi Mar\u2019l, Tsahi Halevy, Hitham Omari, Tarek Copti
\n99 minutes, Hebrew and Arabic with English Subtitles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It feels a little churlish to be critical about Bethlehem, especially when there are many things to be said in favour of the film. There is the charged, engrossing script, for one thing; some exceptional acting, the assured and steady hand of debutant director Yuval Adler at the helm. But there\u2019s yet something just not […]<\/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-27625","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\/27625","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=27625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}