Review of Five Broken Cameras (2011) by Arseniy V — 23 May 2013

An absolute must see. Big props to Veep (a ridiculously good hbo comedy series) for their clever little plug of this film. Which is how I got here. So what makes this such a must see?

Let's begin with the obvious. It is an incredible feat of hypocrisy, that so many filmmakers, claiming to care about people and kindness - are still making holocaust films and keeping perfectly quiet about this part of their story. The part where the victims' children and grandchildren go on to victimize another group of people, in painfully similar fashion. I wonder if Nazi Germany pumped out as many films about the atrocities perpetrated upon them during Germany's more vulnerable years - while they were working their way toward the final solution. None of this is to say that the Holocaust is not an event that should be examined and reexamined. The Grey Zone, after all, is one of my all-time favorite films. What I am saying however, is that without putting those events into today's context - most said Holocaust films, if anything, do more to help perpetuate further atrocities - than to prevent them.

Which brings me to some of this pictures main strengths. It's timeliness is, of course, an undeniable one. But what I value even more - is its refusal to give in to obvious emotions. To a loss of context and objectivity.

In light of depicted events, the temptation to do this - is nothing if not overpowering. Even for this distant, comfortable viewer (whose concentration of Jewish blood is not insignificant either). To say nothing of the filmmakers, whose wounds are about as raw as wounds can be. There are many unmistakable examples of this, the purest form of heroism, displayed throughout the picture. The specific example I'm going to close with, may or may not have been meant exactly in the way that it struck me. But my guess is that it wasn't all that far off.

In the midst of the events, the filmmaker, concerned about his youngest son's growing idealism - decides to show him their people's practice of taking a lamb's life. All with that same, unwavering certainty - in which things so close to their own lives - are being taken from them by Israelis. The "vulnerability of life" is what he dubs this lesson. Commenting that the only protection he can offer the boy - is to allow him to see said vulnerability, with his own young eyes. This really is the key lesson here. And, if it were up to me, in one form or another - it would be a lesson in all such films. Because we, biological entities, are all built to play both the role of helpless victim and that of callous sadist - in relation to one another. Interchangeably and simultaneously.

Many Jews suffered terribly at the hands of those, better equipped than they, for taking. Now Israeli forces have found such prey for themselves, in the Palestinians. And not a century is likely to pass, before those latest victims - find themselves in the position of despots in relation to some other comparatively vulnerable group. Even now, even here, we see Palestinians take from the lamb - all that the lamb has for itself. And until the lamb's turn comes, it will, just as unflinchingly, take from the plants. Much like us, bleeding-heart vegetarian types - the lamb will kill and displace thousands, millions of creatures who make their livings thereupon. Plants and creatures, who've made their own way - by preying upon those, unequipped to ward them off. This is the sort of system biological life's great engineer seems to insist on. At most every turn. Just when we think we've finally discovered a species built to live a kind and peaceful life - it only takes a little further study for us to discover the bloodlust lurking just beneath the surface. Chimps, bonobos, dolphins, otters - hell, even social ameoba aren't immune to this reality.

Mother nature just isn't all that keen on sustainable kindness. And like it or not, humans are as much her children as any of the others. We will not find salvation from that monsterdom in her, nor in congratulating ourselves as we point our little fingers at a consensus bully or two, while ignoring the bully lurking inside us all. There's only one trick here, only one way to make the slightest bit of positive difference in this monster factory. It starts with our acceptance monsterdom's universality and continues, with our making use of that same capacity for reason and perspective that allows us to cause unprecedented destruction - to instead, find ways of being kinder than we are otherwise compelled to be. To find our way toward whatever ingredient it is - that allows us to ask these questions in the first place. Because where ever such questions are being asked, where ever these internal conflicts are being waged - an alternative is most certain to exist. After all, a conflict takes two sides. If our biology was all that there was, where would the other side of these internal conflicts come from? Our making our way toward that other side, that other ingredient hidden somewhere within us - is certainly a longshot. But it's, just as certainly - the surest such shot we have. And this film is, in many ways, a unique and important step in that direction. An affirmation of just how arduous, yet walkable - that road may well be. After all, it does draw some of its support from The New Israeli Foundation For Cinema.