Filmmaker Amos Gitai was a first-hand witness to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which troops from Egypt and Syria chose one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar to launch a surprise attack on Israel. This film examines the short but bloody conflict through the eyes of a student, Weinraub (Liron Levo). Weinraub and his friend Russo (Tomer Russo) have been instructed to join a special military unit on the Golan Heights shortly after the fighting begins, but in the confusion they are instead
thrown in with an emergency medical team led by Dr. Klauzner (Uri Ran Klauzner). Weinraub and Ruso help Klauzner and his men rescue the wounded, and they find themselves in as much danger as the soldiers on the front line, as the fighting rages on around them and their helicopter is hit by enemy fire. Meanwhile, on the ground another doctor (Pini Mittleman) tries to preserve an oasis of calm and medical discipline in the midst of war. Kippur was shown in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Gitai plunges the viewer into the reality of modern warfare, in which the enemy is often invisible -- we never see the Syrians in Kippur -- and battle lines are often unclear.
As bloody or breathtaking or heroic as these gussied-up Hollywood depictions of armed human conflict might try to be, none of them capture the true hellacious chaos of war like Israeli director Amos Gitai's Kippur.
Ignore the usual comments regards to the flow of the film.It's sheer film-making at it's most possible and at it's most believable.The Israeli Platoon,too much dreadfulness and a few comrades who do the job.Is that all?Gitai locates the gene of good/evil inside the petrified eyes of his protagonists amidst trenches and
bombings,where the opening and closing scene are the sole moments of self-relief and future hope.
September 13, 2008
Dimitris Springer
Super Reviewer
An Israeli film about the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Largely based on director Amos Gitai?s own experiences, it tell the story of a soldier placed in a chaotic environment, that?s about as much story as one will find here as this is a largely non-narrative film. Gitai often has long takes with minimal camera movement and
will often remain focused on seemingly mundane things in hope that if the camera lingers on them they will somehow mean something more. Some may find this filmmaking profound, I found it as boring as dishwater. There are a few farily interesting scenes, but as a whole this film is Thin Red Line Lite at its best, boring and pretentious at its worst.
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