Alila

Israel

2003

121 Min

Color

1.85:1

English, Hebrew

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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PROD Amos Gitai, Michel Propper

CAST Yaël Abecassis, Hana Laszlo, Uri Klauzner, Ronit Elkabetz, Amos Lavi, Lupo Berkowitch, Liron Levo

ED Monica Coleman, Kobi Netanel

Up to now, old Schwartz led a peaceful existence, surrounded by Linda, a young Philippine woman who takes care of him, his neighbor Aviram who never goes out without his dog, and Mali, whose love affair with Ilan, on the other side of the courtyard, did not bother him much. But lately everything seems out of order. Every day, the building echoes with screaming and yelling. Is it because of Hezi, who has secretly rented an apartment to make love with his mistress Gabi, whose shrieks of pleasure bring all the neighbors out? Or is it because of the new neighbors who extend their apartment with authorization? Even Mali is in trouble: the building contractor in charge of the work camps in front of her home with his Chinese workmen. He happens to be her ex-husband. On top of everything, their son Eyal has deserted the army. —amosgitai.com

Director

Amos Gitai

Born in Haifa in 1950, as the second son of architect Munio Weinraub and former Sionist activist Efratia Margalit. On the year of his birth, his parents changed the family name to “Gitai”, which is the Hebrew translation of the German name “Weinraub”. While he was a student in architecture, Amos Gitai joined the Yom Kippur war in 1973 as a reserve duty officer, and served as part of a helicopter rescue team. While serving during the war, he started filming with a 8mm camera his mother gave him as his birthday present. On his 23rd birthday, October 11th 1973, his helicopter was shot down by a Syrian missile. Among the 7 crews on board, 6 of them survived, including Gitai himself, who was inspired by this traumatic experience to quit architecture and move to filmmaking. He made a documentary on this incident and his fellow survivors, “Kippur: War Memories” in 1993, then a fictional recreation of it “Kippur” in 2000.

in 1979, Gitai directed his first feature-length documentary “House”… read more

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msmichel

18Mar12

The usually reliable Gitai fumbled here with this portrait of people inhabiting a series of apartments that only winds up in stereotypes and characteratures. Main stories of a woman in a sexually supect relationship and story of a divorced couple dealing with their awol son just aren't interesting enough to draw us in with side stories even worse. Some ok performances (female leads) and some horrible ones. A miss.