Review of Red Fields

I might say this is the best movie to come out of Israel so far, but that wouldn't be fair because MAMY can't be compared to other Israeli films. The most similar film is TOMMY, which is echoed in a number of aspects. War brings disaster to a young couple, someone becomes disabled, there is a sexual threat, we meet a powerful and evil woman, there is intervention from a doctor, and the patient becomes a famous leader but is ultimately rejected by the public. And it's a pop opera. But it's a very Israeli opera, dealing with the country's underprivileged, and for this movie the music has been adapted to a more Middle Eastern style than the stage version used. As a rock opera, the stage version had a little musical levity. The movie version doesn't; the music is compelling but consistently mournful although the story veers into satire once the characters have sunk to rock bottom.

As an opera, the movie can take advantage of an exemption from the demands of realism. It hops over plot holes and lets its budget constraints show freely. It's swept along largely by the singing and acting of Neta Elkayam in her first movie. Like Mazi Cohen, who played the part on stage, Elkayam does not have a conventionally pretty face. That she isn't pretty, and that she isn't well known, helps produce a feeling of honesty that sells the story despite the artificiality of the genre. And you can't help believing her when she sings, against the arrangements by Dudu Tassa (who also serves as narrator) and Nir Maimon.