Film Reviews : Israeli Film Series at the Monica 4-Plex

The 1988 Israeli film series continues at the Monica 4-Plex with today’s opening of “On My Own,” a sensitive but uninspired account of a bright, rebellious 11-year-old, Tzion Cohen (Arik Ohana) sent to live with a foster family.

Deserted by his mother at the age of four and with his father in prison, Tzion lives in a bleak housing project with his grandmother (Ruchama Malka). He has become a chronic truant who hangs around with a group of equally aimless youths. The relationship between grandson and grandmother is devoted and loving, but the grandmother realizes that Tzion must have a change of environment or risk ending up like his father.

Ohana and Malka are wonderful actors, but director Tamir Paul, in adapting Galila Ron-Feder’s novel (in collaboration with the author), hasn’t been able to bring to Tzion’s story the impact it warrants. The film captures Tzion’s sense of dislocation and hostility at being plunked down, very much against his will, in a prosperous suburban family. But never do we get the feeling that there’s any comment on the obvious fact that his new foster parents (Tchia Danon, Roberto Pollock) have not really thought through what they’re getting into in taking him in. They do not seem to have reckoned with how Tzion might affect them and especially their own son Nir (Roy Barnatan), a near-contemporary of Tzion, or how Tzion will be affected by them.