MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Shattered Dreams’ Documents Israel’s Plight

Victor Schonfeld’s “Shattered Dreams: Picking Up the Pieces” (opening at the Nuart today), a thoughtful, provocative, almost 3-hour documentary on Israel, couldn’t be more timely, arriving in the wake of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat’s apparent declaration of Israel’s right to exist and his opposition to terrorism.

That’s because Schonfeld’s wide-ranging consideration of Israel’s past and present leads him to the inescapable conclusion that there can be no real hope for the nation’s future without the establishment of peaceful and enduring coexistence between Arabs and Jews. That Schonfeld, an American raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, is forthright about where he stands makes his film all the more personal and poignant.

In considering Israel’s plight, with five wars in its 40 years of existence, Schonfeld interviews Arabs and Jews of every conceivable political and religious view and focuses on the impact upon public opinion of the war in Lebanon and the uprising in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Amid the emotion-charged extremist sentiments, we begin to hear voices of moderation. They deplore the war in Lebanon and the brutal oppression in the occupied territories and they proclaim friendship and brotherhood between Arab and Jew.

No words could hope to match this film’s images of the brutality of the Israeli soldiers against the Arabs in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank. No wonder elderly Jews who survived the Holocaust tell Schonfeld of the horror with which they regard Jewish conduct in Lebanon and in the occupied territories. No wonder we hear fears expressed that in these actions the Israelis are undermining the moral foundation of their society.

Schonfeld does not judge either Arab or Jew who has suffered at the other’s hands but rather shows us two peoples lashing out at each other in their respective struggles for survival. The voices of untrammeled emotion sadly speak loudest; at no moment can we feel with much certainty that reason will someday prevail.

By far the most disturbing presence in the film is that of the rabble-rousing rabbi, Meir Kahane, leader of the resurgent far right. His messages of hatred for Arabs makes him the most chilling clergyman captured on film since Marcel Ophuls filmed haranguing Protestant leader Ian Paisley in “A Sense of Loss,” his documentary on Northern Ireland.

In surveying Israel’s past, Schonfeld sees in the lack of demarcation between religious laws and secular laws a key obstacle to peace, an obstacle that not only hinders effective Arab-Jewish relations but has real and sometimes dire consequences in Israeli domestic life.

In this regard, Schonfeld visits a retreat for battered wives, who have very few rights since marriage is subject to rabbinical rather than state law. He also calls attention to the hapless Ethiopian Jews, who came to Israel as refugees only to have the sincerity of their ancient faith challenged by the rabbis (who by and large seem convinced that many of them are Communists).

“Shattered Dreams” (Times-rated: Mature), which is punctuated with the recurring image of Arab workers making Israeli flags, opens with pop singer Shalom Hanoch singing to an audience of enraptured young people that “the Messiah’s not coming, the Messiah’s not even phoning, the Messiah has jumped off the roof.” It ends with an unprecedented conference in which Jewish peace activists defy the law to meet with their Arab counterparts at a hotel in Romania. We’re left agreeing with one of the participants who sees it only as a very small step--but one in the right direction.

‘SHATTERED DREAMS:

PICKING UP THE PIECES’

A New Yorker Films release. Producers Victor Schonfeld, Jennifer Millstone. Writer-director Schonfeld. Camera Peter Greenhalgh, Amnon Salomon, Dani Schneuer, Yossi Wein, Zachariah Raz, Vaacov Saporta, Jimmy Dibbling. Film editor Millstone. Additional editing by Michael Foale, Jonathan Morris, Sue Brook. Music performed by Shalom Hanoch, Shlomo Barr. Narrator Jack Klass.

Running time: 2 hours, 49 minutes.

Times-rated: Mature.