THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – NOT TO BE MISSED
No wonder the title of Eran Kolirin’s new film And there was a morning sounds like the first sentence of a fairy tale. The genre has indeed guided the director since his first feature film, The visit of the marching band (released in 2007), inspires him to write stories where the absurd and the imaginary mingle with reality, in a strange, disconcerting, humorous way. The filmmaker has found there his space of freedom and a singular signature which he uses to express the surreal situations, the injustices and the dramas engendered by the politics carried out in his country, Israel. To also express his disenchantment. But with modesty, using metaphor and fantasy, its ramparts against despair.
This is how Eran Kolirin’s films let the light shine through. And manage to breathe into melancholy this warm current, reassuring, full of life which, tirelessly, strives to drive away the bad winds carried by history. Hope is always in sight, even when the exits seem all closed, the horizon definitively blocked. As is the case in And there was a morningfree adaptation of the eponymous novel by Sayed Kashua (Editions de l’Olivier, 2006) from which the filmmaker draws his most beautiful film.
This takes us to an Arab village in Israel built on a hill, in the middle of a desert area. The village where Sami (Alex Bachri) was born and raised, before leaving for Jerusalem, leaving behind his family and friends. Since then, he has hardly visited them. But, this time, he was forced to do so by the marriage of his younger brother. Sami returned with his wife, Mira (Juna Suleiman), and son, Adam, for a weekend.
When the film begins, the party is in full swing. We dance, we sing, the children steal candies, the family expresses its happiness to finally be reunited, proud and happy to see Sami again, the eldest son who, far from here, has made himself a good situation. Which keeps away, impatient to leave, to find his life, his environment, the woman he fell in love with and for whom he is on the verge of leaving everything. In the meantime, he drags his boredom, noting with a form of superiority to what extent his relatives have become strangers. With them, he no longer shares anything, neither the culture nor the concerns, even less the way of life. No matter, tomorrow he will be home.
A tragicomedy
At Kolirin, an unforeseen event always arises that creates the seesaw. A branching error that deviates the trajectory of the orchestra (The visit of the marching band), a short circuit that occurs in the hero’s mind (The Exchange, 2011) and the story goes off the rails. Here, it will be the intervention of the Israeli army which, during the night, surrounded the village. At sunrise, a wall has been erected, soldiers stationed, which prohibit the inhabitants the slightest movement, deprive them of any communication with the outside.
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