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Kedma review
:. Director: Amos Gitaï
:. Starring: Yaël Abecassis, Yussuf Abu-Warda
:. Running Time: 1:40
:. Year: 2002
:. Country: Israël
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May 1948, a few days before the creation of the state of Israel, a rusted boat—the "Kedma"—conveys survivors from the Shoah to Palestine. In Hebrew, "Kedma" means "towards the East", showing the direction to recovery to these barely living survivors of the Nazi horror.
Upon their arrival, they are welcome by British army shootings and then enrolled into the Jewish secret army. Confusion will follow. Gitaï attempts to depict the chaotic trajectory of a small community in search of an illusory kibbutz where they will be able to settle. But it is precisely this ground which, at the center of all the stakes, is claimed by Jews and Arabs, whose meetings are the most intense moments of film. After having fled the camps and from the British, Jews wander from one camp to another, reliving the war, tragedy and trauma.
Gitaï's film opens and closes with two long shots, showing a tired Janusz who bears the scars from the war. This male character symbolizes the suffering of the Holocaust of which he is a witness. In a final poignant, he denounces the nonsense of the war and decries his own people, giving a voice to Amos Gitaï from whom he is the undoubtedly the alter ego (the director actually fought and was wounded, which is the story of his earlier film, Kippour). Stunned with anger and despair, Janusz, who saw his companions die, affirms that the Jewish people are people "without history" because he is not the master of his own destiny. Others write this history. Without being martyr, the Jewish people "can't exist". Janusz cries and shouts that all this must end. The hot topicality of Gitaï's film unfortunately contradicts the salutary will for peace expressed by its character. The director holds, throughout his upsetting film, in the right place, taking into account the points of view of both camps. Jews and Arabs feel dispossessed of a territory that they legitimately claim.
There is no unwanted Manicheism or ambiguity here (unlike in Makhmalbaf's work). Gitaï, who belongs to the Israeli left wing, makes both sides dialogue and share the pain. The film converges towards an acme that is expressed in the second half of the film with vertiginous realistic combat scenes. An unsettling and heavy calm and the bodycount following the battle are soberly showed by Gitaï's camera. Everything is said in these shots and the demonstration is implacable. The spectator witnesses the triggering of an inescapable process of violence which as recent events attest, hasn't been resolved as of yet.
Sandrine Marques
 Movie Reviews: Foreign Films
Movie Reviews since 2012
Reviews since 2012
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