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May 10, 1996
Under the Domim Tree
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
he intense, complicated teen-agers who reside in the Oudim State Boarding School in Eli Cohen's film "Under the Domim Tree" represent Israel's shining youth at the same time that many of them are traumatized survivors.
It is 1953, and these students are among the thousands of young people orphaned by the Holocaust whom the Youth Aliyah movement relocated in Israel in kibbutz-like communal villages.
While they are helping to build the foundation of the emerging Israeli state, beneath their communal hope and idealism lurk horrifying memories and haunting questions that may never be answered.
At the end of the day, when the singing and dancing stop and the lights go out, the ghosts of the past loom large. In the movie's eerie opening scene, the students methodically comb the muddy fields around the school in search of a runaway classmate who turns out to have drowned himself.
The scene echoes their own desperate flight from the Nazis. One young man, Yurek (Ohad Knoller), who survived in the woods for two years with a younger boy, periodically reverts into a wild-child state in which he dashes around piggybacking the boy (Jeniya Catzan), who emits frightening animal cries.
"Under the Domim Tree" is the sequel to Cohen's 1988 film, "The Summer of Aviya." Like the earlier movie, it is based on a memoir by the Israeli actress Gila Almagor, who wrote the screenplay with Eyal Sher. Ms. Almagor also appears in the movie.
Filmed in a golden haze that lends the story a nostalgic glow, the movie romanticizes the past without sugar-coating its pain. Its elliptical narrative follows the emotional lives of four young people coming to terms with their tragic family histories.
Besides the mysterious, wild-eyed Yurek, it focuses on his girlfriend, Aviya (Kaipo Cohen), who, while technically not an orphan, is a ward of the state because her acutely depressed and delusional mother is in a mental hospital. The old woman (Ms. Almagor), whom Aviya visits, was never in a concentration camp but is still convinced she is a Holocaust survivor and has even tattooed numbers on her arms to prove it.
Finally, there are Yola (Orli Perl) and Mira (Riki Blich). While one lives in the distant hope of a reunion with her parents, the other dreads reconciliation with an abusive couple who show up at the school claiming her as their own.
The film's most poignant moment arrives when Yola receives word that her father is alive in Poland and waiting for her to join him. Her seemingly miraculous good fortune awakens a collective longing, and she is showered with letters to carry on a journey that never takes place.
As the movie sadly observes, the dream of family can also be a nightmare. When a man and woman arrive at the school insisting that Mira is their daughter, the dour, antisocial teen-ager denies it and tries to run away. The matter is ultimately resolved in court.
If "Under the Domim Tree" is touching, it is also meandering and narratively diffuse. The stories are interwoven in a dreamy, haphazard way that leaves too many unanswered questions. And the symbolism of a tulip field and the domim tree that overlooks it veers perilously close to sentimentality.
What holds the movie together are its heartfelt, natural performances by a mostly nonprofessional cast. These young actors evoke a tightly knit community collectively caught between an irretrievable past and a problematic future they must invent together.
UNDER THE DOMIM TREEThis film is not rated.
Directed by Eli Cohen; written (in Hebrew, with English subtitles) by Gila Almagor and Eyal Sher, with additional writing by Mr. Cohen; director of photography, David Gurfinkel; edited by Danny Shik; music by Benny Nagari; production designer, Eitan Levy; produced by Ms. Almagor and Eitan Evan; released by Strand Releasing. Running time: 102 minutes.
Cast: Kaipo Cohen (Aviya), Gila Almagor (Aviya's mother), Riki Blich (Mira), Orli Perl (Yola), Ohad Knoller (Yurek) and Jeniya Catzan (Ze'evik).
Showtimes and tickets from777-FILM Online
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