[Marxism] The Warmth of Comfort Zones

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's not a great movie, a fantastic movie, but it does send a moral 
message of exceptional power. The final message of the movie is that 
a suicide bomber is doing something which the audience can understand 
and sympathize with. For a movie with such a message to come out of
Israel - it just opened here in Los Angeles - and to portray HAMAS 
in a largely sympathetic light, tells you that in intelligent and 
thoughtful circles, there is a profound malaise in the Jewish state. 

Let me repeat: This Israeli movie presents HAMAS in a completely 
understandable and sympathic light. No campaign against "radical 
Islam" here, though it also doesn't shy away from some of the ugly 
prejudices which some Muslims have, in this case, against gays.
I'd love to say more, but you should see this movie yourself.

If you want to read more, including spoilers, you'll find them in
IMDB's comments page.

Being Jewish myself (ethnicity, not religion, of course), I've found 
myself paying more and more attention to Israel because, under the
Zionist government, the country has become the enemy of progressive
Humanity, tragically. This movie is very, very much about the way
Israel is now, from everything I've heard. Try to see this one now.
If you saw WALK ON WATER, a previous film by the same director, one 
of this film's stars played the gay male palestinian lead there, a 
role he reprises here. He's a terrific actor. A profile of him in
Friday's L.A. Times will tell more about the director:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-bubble4sep04,1,6637701.story

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THE OFTEN INSUFFERABLE ELLA TAYLOR SAYS IN THE LA WEEKLY:
About forbidden love, Fox may be a hopeless romantic, but he also has
the hopeless romantic?s propensity for dystopia when idealism fails.
Given the upbeat, tender rhythms of the movie?s love story, the
climax ? a cry of bottomless despair ? comes as a profound shock.
It?s meant to, and though the ending is touched by the goofy
absurdities of melodrama, Fox?s mix-and-match sampling of apparently
incompatible genres nails the nervous blend of vitality and
desperation that is Israel today.
http://www.laweekly.com/film+tv/film/the-bubble-make-love-not-war/17172/
===================================================================

THE NEW YORK TIMES
September 7, 2007
The Warmth of Comfort Zones

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: September 7, 2007

http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/movies/07bubb.html

Vacillating provocatively between romantic comedy and political
tragedy, ?The Bubble? is photographed with a sunny brightness that
belies the gravity of its intentions.

Set primarily in the fashionable Sheinkin Street district of Tel
Aviv, the story follows three left-leaning 20-somethings (two men and
a woman) whose notion of political action is to hold a ?rave against
the occupation.? But when Noam (Ohad Knoller), a sweet-natured
music-store clerk and reserve soldier, meets a handsome Palestinian
named Ashraf (Yousef Sweid), their escalating affair forces everyone
to face reality in the cruelest possible way.

Squeezing a lot of conflict ? sexual, ethnic and intellectual ? into
its 117 minutes, ?The Bubble? is about the appeal of self-delusion
and the warmth of comfort zones. Noam?s best friend, Yali (Alon
Friedmann), a cafe manager, reproaches Noam for habitually choosing
unavailable men yet denies his own attraction to casually aggressive
partners.

Meanwhile, Ashraf?s fond sister (Roba Blal) and her future husband, a
Hamas leader aptly named Jihad (Shredy Jabarin), negate Ashraf?s
homosexuality by coercing him into a straight relationship.

Eytan Fox directs with compassion but also with impatience for his
characters? self-centered naïveté, veering somewhat uneasily between
these tones and relying on the competence of his actors to smooth the
transitions. And though his ending is more poetic than just, it
effectively diverts partisan sympathies toward a more general
condemnation of violence. Mr. Fox may be a romantic, but he
understands that love is rarely all you need.

THE BUBBLE
Directed by Eytan Fox; written (in Hebrew and Arabic, with English
subtitles) by Gal Uchovsky and Mr. Fox; director of photography,
Yaron Scharf; edited by Yosef Grunfeld and Yaniv Raiz; music by Ivri
Lider; production designer, Oren Dar; produced by Mr. Uchovsky, Ronen
Ben Tal and Amir Feingold; released by Strand Releasing. Running
time: 117 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Ohad Knoller (Noam), Yousef Sweid (Ashraf), Daniela Wircer
(Lulu), Alon Friedmann (Yali), Roba Blal (Rana) and Shredy Jabarin
(Jihad).


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