Israel, 2003
Score: **
Director: Amos Gitai

Israeli director Amos Gitai’s ALILA, adapted from Yehoshua Kenaz’s novel RETURNING LOST LOVES, intertwines the going-ons of different racial individuals as they interact, sometimes not too favorably with each other, in the space of a few days.  The common denominator is the downtown Tel Aviv apartment complex they inhabit. 

Gitai is a non-commercial film director whose last few films, KADOSH and KIPPUR, demonstrate his distinctive brand of story-telling.  Many will find his choppy narrative irritating but done right as in KADOSH, the result can be astounding.

Unfortunately, the dozen or so characters in ALILA are annoying and too diverse to identify with.  There is the boy (Amit Mestechkin) gone A.W.O.L., much to the consternation of his mother (Hanna Laslo) and her ex-husband (Uri Klauzner), a holocaust survivor (Yosef Carmon) and his Filipino maid (Lyn Shiao Zamir) mixed in with other assorted illegal aliens. They shout, scream, make love and argue, but most often without a solid enough reason. Director Gitai’s aim does not come across too well either. Is he trying to emphasize the problems of different communities living together in Israel?  If he is, what difference would it make as these (problems) are faced, and many times worse, in the larger cities of the world? The shoddiest of Gitai’s characters, to this critic, are what I call the anonymous lovers. They appear time and again in his films. This time his sexually charged lovers (Yael Abelcassis and Amos Lavie), grunt and groan and make love only to disclose the fact the building walls are too thin as everyone can hear them. Apparently the neighbours are not the only ones who want the action to come to an abrupt end. But at least we do not have to watch the lovers rolling in paint as in the other Gitai film. 

Review by Gilbert Seah.