REVIEWS
God’s Neighbours Reviewed by Jonathan Romney
Israeli first-feature God’s Neighbours (Les Voisins De Dieu) brings a decidedly punchy touch to its sin- cere plea for tolerance. Adding a theological dimension to its boisterous take on contemporary Israeli society, Meni Yaesh’s film has energy and confidence to spare, but cannot quite decide how to pitch itself — as likeable comedy or gritty social drama. The uncertainty is especially problematic since its protagonist veers between being an all-out
nice guy and something much more difficult to accept, a violent religious bigot. The likeability of lead Roy Assaf helps offset the
directorial awkwardness, but a schematic approach to the film’s moral issues makes for an ungainly, overtly polemical package. This will not help sales prospects, though festivals, especially with a Jewish or ecumenical angle, will latch onto God’s Neigh- bours as a lively stimulus for debate. Set in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, the film is
about a young man named Avi (Assaf ), who is a pretty hip sort of guy — smoking dope, creating his own dance tracks and hanging out with his high- fiveing buddies. You would meet a character like Avi in any
CRITICS’WEEK
Isr-Fr. 2012. 127mins Director/screenplay Meni Yaesh Production companies Bizibi, Transfax Film Productions International sales Rezo World Sales,
www.rezofilms.com Producers Jérome Bleitrach, Marek Rozenbaum Cinematography Shahak Paz Production designer Udi Tugendreich Editor Asaf Korman Music Shushan Main cast Roy Assaf, Gal Friedman, Itzik Golan, Rotem Ziesman-Cohen
streetwise contemporary urban drama — the only difference being that Avi is a devout Orthodox Jew of the Hasidic ‘Breslov’ branch. Together with his friends Kobi and Yaniv, he runs a ‘neighbourhood watch’ team, which deals out summary justice, often with baseball bats, to anyone who disturbs the peace, breaks the laws of the Sabbath or other- wise gets on the guys’ nerves. At one point, the trio of friends rather menac-
ingly confront a young secular neighbour, Miri (Ziesman-Cohen), and berate her for not dressing modestly enough. But Avi also takes a liking to Miri and — perhaps improbably — she takes a shine to him. The question is whether he will have to bend his codes to hers, or vice versa, for the two to find happiness. Continuing a cycle of recent Israeli fictions
about Orthodox Judaism and its complexities (including Amos Gitai’s 1999 film Kadosh and 2007’s Eyes Wide Open), God’s Neighbours is a direct, rather artless film that sketches its social milieu in bold colours. It offers an intriguing insight into Avi’s Breslov congregation and the Sephardic community he belongs to (in which Miri seems to be the only woman visible for miles). But the film suffers badly in misjudging its
lighter registers: the increasingly cute tenor of Avi’s tentative courtship of Miri is hard to swallow, while some support actors’ manic overplaying capsizes the sense of realism. Yaesh has made his choice to entertain, but a more sober approach would have done justice to the contradictions of a complex and urgent theme.
May 22, 2012 Screen International at Cannes 17 n
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