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Review #175 of 365
Film: Free Zone [NR] 90 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12.25
Where Viewed: Starz FilmCenter, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 6 July 2006
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Jordan, Eli, and Molly C. of Chicago, IL
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Throughout the past decade or so, the debate as to the relevance of funding the arts and the contributions of the arts to the world in lieu of other social programs or military spending has raged wildly in the USA. The Cannes Film Festival Best Actress-winning film, Free Zone, about an American named Rebecca (Natalie Portman) who travels with her Spanish-Israeli fiancée to Israel where events cause them to separate and, subsequently, her to spend the next couple of days on a wild taxi ride to the Free Zone, demonstrates the value of an international, collaborative, artistic endeavor—a first-ever joint film project between Israel and the Jordanian Royal Film Commission--to make a film which takes people to places in the world they might never otherwise see and invites them to witness the complex interactions between three very different women: an Israeli, an American, and a Palestinian, each with her own perspective on things, baggage, and struggles. Could there be a better way to thaw relations and to promote international cooperation and understanding than to work with another nation to create a balanced film that helps all sides come together? Not only that, but Co-writer and director Amos Gitai has his own style of filmmaking that is unique and fresh. This too, helps bring cultural understanding. Toward illustrating that point, the film begins with a, perhaps prolonged a bit too long, single camera shot of a forlorn and teary-eyed Rebecca staring out the window of a car.
Clearly, she has just suffered a great loss in her life, though we won't find out the magnitude of her loss until later and then via superimposed images that cause much to be concluded from evidence presented. While if that were not interesting and different enough, in the background, we hear a song with translated lyrical subtitles that tells a story that reminded me at first of the English children's story, "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly". This song involved a similar chain of actions beginning with a father's purchase of a lamb for two coins that leads the lamb to be eat by a cat, the cat choked by a dog, and the dog beaten by a stick, the stick burned by a flame, the flame extinguished by water, the water drunk by an ox, the ox slain by a man, the man taken by the angel of death. The song then deliberates as to why such a chain of aggressive actions exists and how the cycle can be broken. The scene is as fascinating for all that it means as it is for revealing the inner thoughts and concepts of the director in how he decided to deliver this message in a relevant way. I could have left the theatre at that moment and felt I had learned something important. After that point, however, Rebecca begins to come out of her trance-like emotional catharsis and begs her cab driver, Hanna Ben Moshe (Israeli entertainer Hana Laszlo) to take her away…anywhere.
"Free Zone…demonstrates the value of an international, collaborative, artistic endeavor…"
Reluctant at first, Hanna eventually agrees to take her along for a ride. She, as it turns out, must drive to a no-man's land, free zone located near the borders of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia where no tariffs nor taxes permit free exchange of old cars where she is to collect a $30,000 debt for her husband from someone known only as "The American". Crossing the border from Israel into Jordan, the Jordanian landscape, the terrain, the car, the film seems to take a turn into an odd-couple road trip with an eerie landscape. The duo becomes a trio later when "The American" cannot be found, and Leila (Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass) agrees to take them to him in exchange for a ride.
Again the film changes gears and pace as the three travel together exchanging glances and stories. Rebecca falls into the background a bit as more of an observer between these two elder, more driven women.
Personally, I have never seen a film quite like this one, and while it was incredibly different, I genuinely liked it for those reasons and because of the lasting impact the imagery and ideas of the story will have on me. The image of Natalie Portman crying in the back seat of Hanna's taxi shall remain indelible from the back of my mind for a long time to come.
Personally, I have never seen a film quite like this one, and while it was incredibly different, I genuinely liked it for those reasons and because of the lasting impact the imagery and ideas of the story will have on me. The image of Natalie Portman crying in the back seat of Hanna's taxi shall remain indelible from the back of my mind for a long time to come.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Review-lite [150-word cap]
Throughout the past decade, the debate over the relevance of funding arts in lieu of other social programs or military spending has raged wildly in the USA. The Cannes Film Festival Best Actress-winning film, Free Zone, about an American named Rebecca (Natalie Portman) who travels with her fiancée to Israel where they separate and, subsequently, she spends the next couple of days on a wild taxi ride to the Free Zone, demonstrates the value of an international, collaborative, artistic endeavor—a first-ever between Israel and the Jordanian Royal Film Commission—to make a film which invites us to witness the complex interactions between three different women: an Israeli, an American, and a Palestinian. Could there be a better way to thaw relations and to promote international cooperation and understanding than to work with another nation to create a balanced film that helps all sides come together?
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