Kissufim (2023)

Kissufim (2023). 1h 28m

“In 2023, between this movieu0026#39;s shoot and its release, the October 7 massacre hit Kibbutz Kissufim. The movie, already rather elegiac (being set in 1977), automatically becomes all the more so.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie shows us that Kibbutz Kissufim houses not only its own members but also a contingent of overseas volunteers, some soldiers, and a Nahal group. Nahal is a program combining kibbutz work with military service, and the movie focuses on the young people in that program– played, as often happens, by actors overage for their roles.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAn audience can follow only so many characters, so the problem with movies set in an environment like this is that either interactions are reduced to an artificially small number of people or the audience may lose track of whou0026#39;s who. The Kissufim movie tends to unfold as if most of the kibbutz doesnu0026#39;t exist; and although the characters are assumed to be hard at work most of the day, the movie is almost entirely about their free time.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are knowing glimpses of the political situation and of the confusing search for love and/or casual sex, but there is no strong narrative arc to carry the movie along and (with all due respect to some fine actors) the characters are not scripted in much detail. If Iu0026#39;d recommend the movie for any reason, itu0026#39;s the photography. Itu0026#39;s almost as if at the moment when the movieu0026#39;s title appears on screen, the movie says u0026quot;Letu0026#39;s talk about width.u0026quot; The camera is in love with the lateral dimension of the screen and takes many opportunities to emphasize it with intriguing repetitive elements or strongly horizontal backgrounds (such as the desert horizon itself). Itu0026#39;s when our attention is turned to talking heads that the movie becomes less interesting.”