Movie Review of Disengagement directed by Amos Gitai

Gerald Wright's Movie Coverage

DISENGAGEMENT MOVIE REVIEW

Directed by: Amos Gitai
Running time: 116 minutes
Release date: 2008 (France)
Genre: Art/Foreign, Drama (in French and Hebrew with English subtitles)
Distributor: Agat Films & Cie
Country: Israel, Germany, Italy, and France

This is a political drama centered around Israel's pullout from the occupied Gaza strip in 2005 and a reuniting of a French mother of Israeli origin and her abandoned daughter on the West Bank.

Ana, played by Juliette Binoche, is the central character who returns to her father's home in France for his funeral where she anticipates seeing her stepbrother Uli (an Israeli Police Officer). Uli is traveling on a train from Israel to France when he meets a beautiful Palestinian woman whose philosophy is that we are all citizens of the world when she is approached and questioned about her passport by authorities. Uli and the woman share a short love affair while traveling. This plot element basically is setting a tone in the film of relieving tensions and finding a common ground and not political points of views.

Once Uli arrives at the French villa of his deceased father and reunites with Ana, they reflect on their estranged relationship they had with their father. The loss of Ana's father is devastating when the will is read and the majority of the wealth is left to her daughter Dana (Dana Ivgy). Dana was conceived when Ana was in her early teens and was given up for adoption. The two have not seen each other in 20 plus years. However, Ana's father always kept in touch with his granddaughter, who now is a school teacher at a Kibbutz in Israel's Gaza strip.

Uli must return to duty because he is in charge of the forced evacuation of Israeli settlers which the government referred to as disengagement. Ana accompanies him because she wants to search for her daughter. Crossing frontiers by car, train and boat Ana and Uli are caught up in turmoil and emotion of the military forcing the evacuation. When Ana meets her daughter Dana an automatic bonding takes place, but this is the time the pull out is taking place and they are separated once again.

Director and filmmaker Amos Gital reflects the chaos in the world situations. It seems that he draws from his films Kadosh (1999), Free Zone (2005) and Kippur (2005) in making a political point. His trademark style includes long takes with scarce but significant camera movements. Juliette Binoche's sensitive and thought provoking performance gives this film a poetic and deeply emotional grace, while Dana Ivgy's impressive portrayal of dedicated teacher and Jew added the necessary authenticity to a complex subject.

FILM RATING (A)