The theme of a single parent looking after grown children when spouse passes on is a familiar one in movies.  Just a few months back, father Anthony LaPaglia juggled a busy job with the rearing of his two sons in the American indie flick, WINTER SOLSTICE. In CAMPFIRE, the newly widowed 42 year-old Rachel (Michaela Eshet) has two teenage daughters Esti (Maya Maron) and Tami (Hani Furstenberg) to contend with. The difference here is that CAMPFIRE is set in 1981 Jerusalem when most of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank were established. Family drama is blended with religious politics. 

The story concerns the widow Rachel’s desire to join the founding group of a new religious settlement in the West Bank.  But she has to prove to the acceptance committee headed by the self-centered and haughty Motke (Assi Dayan) that her family is worthy.  To accomplish this, she contends herself to dating again (remarrying will look good), but trouble brews when youngest Tami is accused of seducing some boys at a campfire. 

Director Joseph Cedar draws from his experiences at the time he was growing up in 1981 Jerusalem where he lived as a boy.  CAMPFIRE has the feel of troubled and desperate times.  It is not only the youth but the adults who are trying their best to etch out a better living.  Cedar’s first film, the impressive TIME OF FAVOR also dealt with family conflict and religion and his return to a familiar ground shows him in top form.  Being a male writing the script for a film with a female protagonist, he instills strong characterizations for both sexes.  Yossi (Moshe Ivgy), Rachel’s suitor has nothing much to say – he is often at a loss of words - but when he has something on his mind, he makes a point.  “Would you sleep with a married man?” he shocks both the viewer and Rachel with the forward question.  CAMPFIRE’s strength lies too in Cedar’s effective blending of social dynamics with ideology and politics.  He is never preachy but the film gets his point across.  Personal integrity rules.  The daughters think their mother is crazy and difficult to put up with.  But the viewer knows by the end reel that the task of keeping a family together and ensuring that every member is content is a crazy and difficult one. 

CAMPFIRE won five Israeli Academy Awards including (ones for) best picture and screenplay.  It clearly establishes Joseph Cedar as a name to watch.