Alila

2003 [HEBREW]

Comedy / Drama

5
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 691 691

tel aviv, israel

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Plot summary

Life in a Tel Aviv apartment complex, an urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who's older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal Chinese immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police detective.

Director

Top cast

720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.04 GB
1280*694
Hebrew 2.0
NR
us  
25 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 16
1.93 GB
1920*1040
Hebrew 2.0
NR
us  
25 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 25

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by raymond-15 6 / 10

I'm not terribly enthusiastic over this one.

An interesting innovation is the introduction of the cast by announcing the names as they appear on the screen. It heightens our interest in what is to follow and acquaints us with the sound of a different language.The film gives us a glimpse of numerous facets of Israeli life-styles of a group of tenants occupying a run down apartment block. Broken marriages, kept women, illegal employment of immigrants, corruption and avoidance of army duties set the scene for a rather unhappy collection of people. Life is hard and unkind and the future is unpredictable.The numerous characters in the film give convincing performances although the police investigator at headquarters, a woman with a raucous laugh, seemed to me a bit unreal. The hot sweaty atmosphere in stuffy rooms is well developed and the much prayed-for rain falls down in buckets.Ezra and Mali have a son Eyali due for military service, but the lad rebels against the system. "The army stinks" he says. "This whole country stinks". Frustrated he wanders the streets in desperation. Ezra and Mali already divorced have a problem son on their hands.Mali has a long time girl friend called Gabi. Gabi is not married. Gabi meets a stranger for sex in a rented room on a regular basis. He is much older and a bit of a mystery character. He insists that their meetings be kept an absolute secret. Of course, this gives the movie maker a great opportunity to throw in a few sex scenes both on the bed and under the shower.Ezra contracts building jobs using Chinese immigrants. This flouts the law, but there are ways of circumventing the law when you have the appropriate neighbours. Leaky dwellings and corroded power boards add to the every day problems and simply provide some background to a not very strong story line.On the whole well done, but not very exciting and one hopes that the excellent actors will be given better material to work with in the future. There is no direct terrorism in the film as we might expect but it is alluded to from time to time in conversation and we hear mention of it in radio broadcasts.
Reviewed by fifo35 6 / 10

introduction to israel 101

this is a film that tries to criticize Israel's public morality.It addresses several issues such as: fornication, racism, immigration,national pride and allegiance to state ideals.both female protagonists have sexual encounters that are outside the norm.The one ends up in grief and the other one is dismissed as insignificant.The Arabs receive pejorative characterizations many times through out the film.the Chinese immigrants sleep in a van they are entities that the state refuse to recognize but they serve as cheap labor for the Israeli civilians, they wonder around freely in the streets of tel-aviv and they don't get deported because of corruption of the police.The boy wants to flee from the army and seems to express a form of indignation towards it's country.Sporadically we are informed about various conflicts between Israeli-Palestinians, suicide attacks, political controversy, etc.Apparently for Gitai Israel is in a state of turmoil, THE OLD GODS ARE DEAD and the new ones are not yet present, in other words Israel is in a transitional state. Cinematically speaking some of the vignettes are interesting and some extremely clichéd and boring, some they last too much time especially some sex scenes.the acting overall is good.It is a pity because Gitai tried to achieve a social commentary towards his country and also to portray some dramatic tension and i think he was lame in both of them.But i recognize his noble intentions so i will give his next film a try if can get hold of it here in Greece.
Reviewed by akkadia 5 / 10

Love, hate and petty squabbling in contemporary Israel

Inevitably perhaps for a contemporary Israeli film, the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians looms over the lives of Alila's protagonists: in the film's opening scene, one of the main characters - a man of 18 or 19 - is on his way to an army barracks; several times during the film we overhear reports of suicide attacks on a radio in the background. But for most of the film, we're more occupied with the personal lives of the protagonists, whose problems (why do I keep seeing this person? why doesn't my ex-spouse just leave me alone?) are more universal. And, on the whole, these people's lives keep us reasonably well entertained for 2 hours. They're an interesting enough bunch and the cast is consistently strong. But for me, the film is ultimately let down by its script: the dialogues are flat at times, the protagonists rarely get the chance to show more than one side of their character, and - despite showing us all manner of human folly - the tone is a bit heavy side. A film worth seeing, but no masterpiece.
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