Carmel

Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai uses an experimental approach and the lens of personal family relationships to express his anguish over the perpetual state of war in his country. With accompanying narration from Jeanne Moreau, Carmel opens with the siege of Jerusalem in ancient Rome, before moving forward to look at a disorganized band of modern-day soldiers. Gitai enters the movie as himself to speak about his Israeli soldier son, Ben, to a Palestinian man, but neither hears anything the other has to say. After that, he segues to a woman (Gitai's daughter, Keren) preparing for the day while looking straight into the camera, and then to a redheaded boy (an actor portraying Gitai as a child) writing to his mother, Efratia (some of the letters are read by Gitai's wife, Rivka, others by actress Keren Mor). Late in the film the director recounts his involvement in the Yom Kippur War and visits a graveyard, presumably to remember lost comrades. The intertwining of real people and actors—coupled with the occasional insertion of home movies and still photographs—ultimately creates a fragmented narrative, with many scenes left unexplained and characters unidentified. By holding the audience at arm's length throughout, Gitai never invests the film with emotion, making Carmel (the title refers to mountains near Haifa) a disappointing take on inherently dramatic events. Optional. (K. Fennessy)