The story is set in Palestine in 1947, during the British mandate period. The Zionists are fighting for the establishment of a Jewish state, and four comrades in arms pressure the young Elisha to overcome his moral qualms and fully commit to the armed struggle.
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I have to say I was quite surprised by my reaction to this film in the cinema. The actors just blew me away! They were subtle, disturbing, disturbed, refined. Really great to watch. Reminded me of the best Hitchcock films. Really liked the moody lighting and music. Didn't really know much about this before, so it really made me brush up on my history - the British in Palestine and it wasn't the crusades? Terrorists who were not only enemies of the British, but also of the Ben Gurion and the Haganah? I mean, the internal conflicts within Palestinian Zionists were really incredible. What I like about this film is that every character is well-played, and in the end, likable. It makes you think about Hannah Arendt's writing - we are all millimeters away from doing evil, and being killers. A must see indie film.
How does one tell a story of the Irgun?Well, we could ask Elie Wiesel, who wrote DAWN in 1960. What qualified him? He translated for the Irgun while he was in France after the war. He knew their rhetoric, and their Betar based revisionist Zionist approach. His book brings he as the young survivor of Night into the moral conundrum explored so well by Camus in Les Justes - Does the end justify the means?Romed Wyder has taken this moving, short and intense interior dialog, and externalized the ethical debate with very convincing, charismatic, and strong characters which require the Big Screen. Joel Basman is stellar as the fragile and innocent Elisha aka Elie Wiesel. Jason Isaacs demonstrates his force and charisma as the ambiguous prisoner. (without a wand and special effects). Sarah Adler is seductive, motherly, and Matta Hari rolled in one. Morris Cohen explodes, cajoles, and browbeats...and the framing by Ram Schweky - seriously, in the cinema for this film. Plus the music by Bernard Trontin - refined, subtle, taking full form as the film closes. What is particularly powerful is Wyder's opening which places us inside the life of Elisha/Elie, and the inclusion of scenes based on Irgun training, and Irgun history. For the defender's of Begin - don't worry - this very focused and moving film helps us feel the force of that moral question the length of the whole film - Does the end justify the means?A beautiful film, and a tribute to the excellent writing of Elie Wiesel, and Billy MacKinnon's adaptation.
