I decided to run two films titles together for this round in the box, basically because i had to since they fit together in a curious sort of coupling. They are both of a fiction, although one is a slight reconstruction of a graphic novel from the eighties into a loosely veiled metaphor of  what the Bush administration represented, while the second is a dramatization of  what might be considered a big or small event in the ongoing Israeli- Palestinian conflict, depending on the weight one might decide to attribute  to one’s concern and respect for a human life.

The two films here are V for Vendetta, from the prodigious Wachowski brothers, and For My Father- the film mentioned in the next box down- from Israeli director Dror Zahavi. Both films are about revenge, with main characters who wrap themselves in explosives for a cause. Both films have been criticized for oversimplifying the dilemmas they pose. Both films dig deeply into the psyche and expose the raw nerves that drive the need for revenge.

The main character- for those who aren’t familiar- in V for Vendetta is only identified as the letter V. He is the sole survivor of a government experiment in bio-warfare and, after twenty years, is out to get those who “done him wrong.” He wears a mask depicting the stylized face of Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the Parliament building in London a number of hundreds of years ago. He quotes Shakespeare, and has a few notable sayings of his own, a sampling of which are:

A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

There is no such thing as coincidence, only the illusion of coincidence.

The main character in For My Father is named Tarek and played by Shredi Jabarin. As we quickly learn, Tarek has been tapped to be the next human explosive delivery system as a Palestinian response to the ongoing occupation of lands by Israel. Tarek seems to get little comfort from the men accompanying him to his “operation”, especially when one says, “we do not have an air force- you are our airforce.” I found it interesting that it was noted in an AP story i clicked on before coming here to write, that the name of the aledged terrorist in the latest “discovered” U.S. plot was also named Tarek- makes one wonder what that illusion of coincidence means.

i wonder a lot about these coincidences- so-called or not. The day Diane’s review appeared in this blog zone was the same day i received a copy of For My Father in the mail, from a film club of which i’m a member. In noting the Israeli- Palestinian conflict theme on the dvd cover, i immediately thought of the three documentaries we recently screened at Lunavision about this very subject, and wondered how a fiction could shed any more light on this basin of troubles. As it turns out, simplification and coincidence are powerful tools that have allowed Zahavi to construct an indictment of this border struggle that causes even the documentaries to pale in comparison.

What we are offered in For My Father is a play on a street corner. There are disputes and resolution among people in a block in Tel Aviv. There is a love story of sorts. And we have a stranger who arrives among them with a pack of trouble from a much larger picture. What we slowly learn here is that there is no good reason to burden these neighbors with more and greater troubles, and that the frame of Tarek’s large and dangerous picture has no purpose or place here.

Katz (Shlomo Vishinsky) is one of the shopkeepers at the center of this drama. He had a son who died in service with the Israeli army. To this end, Katz makes the following statement: “He died because everyone here is stupid.” As a coincidence, this could be just as easily applied to the deadly results of most  armed conflicts. If you have to see one film about the Middle East problem, or if you’re looking for a drama that will spark discussion, open mental pathways, and shake you to the core, i would suggest For My Father.

That was simple.