Israeli Films 2: The disengagement of Gitai

The term “left-wing” in Israeli politics refers not to those who wish to see a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, but rather to those who would abandon all the cherished dreams of Jewish nationalism in order to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians. In this sense the celebrated Israeli film director Amos Gitai can truly be described as a “left-wing” activist. Or at least until now. His latest film “Disengagement” , just released in France to critical acclaim, tells the story of Israel’s forced expulsion of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 – in an attempt (subsequently proved futile) to provide a self-governing peaceful democratic enclave for the Palestinians. The story is told through the eyes of the European Ana (Juliet Binoche) and her step-brother Uli (Liron Levo) , an Israeli officer, whose paths cross a second time in Gaza, where Ana seeks to be reunited with the Israeli daughter she abandoned as a child. The film was introduced in person by Gitai at a cinema in St-Germain-des-Prés near my Paris home. He gave a moving account (in accented French) of how his son, an Israeli soldier as Gitai himself had been, persuaded him that there were many sides to the Israeli story.
The film is only partially successful in so far as the actual disengagement, which I witnessed in real time on TV in a hotel room on top of China’s Yellow Mountain, was far more dramatic. No-one can ever forget the scenes of the Israeli policewoman embracing the settler woman – both flooding tears, the gentle restrained force of the policemen as they evicted the men with as much respect and dignity as the event could allow. For me personally, Gitai’s film did not succeed in reproducing the emotion of the actual event, which had left me unashamedly in tears to the bemusement of the Chinese woman who had come to service my room.

With international stars such as Binoche – who claims to have been affected by her portrayal in the withdrawal, and Jeanne Moreau, the film cannot fail. And if it marks a return of Gitai to objectivity – it is a welcome landmark.