Ushpizin

[Gremal]

Ok, I will seek this out and give it a chance. It seems humorous and insightful. No doubt all of Amos Gitai's films are insightful as well, but they make me very nervous. Having lived in Israel (I've only visited) you know what most people there are like and you are familiar with everyday life there and the issues facing the country. You need to remember that most people do not know what Israelis are like; most people are not familiar with everyday life in Israel; most people do not understand the issues facing the country.

Films like Gitai's cast Israel in a bad light. You and I know better and can put it in the proper perspective, but I assure you that 99.9999% of the public cannot. As such, Gitai is not doing any favors to Israel's image which has enough problems without movies that essentially demonize certain groups of Israelis (many viewers will misinterpret this and apply it to all Israelis). Then you have films like Time of Favor and Kippur that manage to focus on arab-Israeli tension without ever addressing the arab side. Instead they again demonize Israelis. Isn't enough of the world and media engaged in this type of demonization? Do we really need Israeli films contributing to the stereotypes and negative images?

I understand that it's important to shine a light on problems, but it seems Israel's problems already get more than their fair share of attention.