POLICEMAN REVEALS HOW ISRAEL DEALS WITH “TERRORISTS”
For almost 40 minutes, Policeman (Ha-Shoter) begins by depicting camaraderie among a counterterrorist unit of the Israeli police force, focusing on Yaron (played by Yiftak Kllein). But soon deception and hypocrisy cloud his reputation: After urging his pregnant wife Nili (Maital Barda) not to incur bad luck by revealing that she might give birth any day, Yaron does so anyway to get plaudits from his buddies at a party. And in a recent anti-terrorist raid, he is not sad that innocent Arabs are killed, and he later tries to pawn off liability on his buddy Ariel (Gal Hoyberger), whose cancer might be terminal. Then the scene changes dramatically, focusing on a group of radicals energized about the fact that Israel has the widest gap between rich and poor of any Westernized country: They plan to kidnap three billionaires, threaten them with death, and demand TV coverage to state their manifesto about economic inequality. But Yaron’s superior classifies such kidnapping as an act of terrorism. Now, because they are Israelis, Yaron is reluctant to join his SWAT team to carry out orders to kill all five kidnappers. Director Nadav Lapid obviously wants filmviewers to realize how counterterrorism is being conducted in Israel today. MH
TWO FILMS POSE THE QUESTION “IS THERE A RIGHT TO DIE?”
Dormant Beauty and Lullaby, released the same week in Los Angeles, present different situations but culturally predictable stories, posing the question who has the right to end life.
Dormant Beauty (Bella addormentata), directed by Marco Bellocchio, dramatizes the famous situation in 2009, when Beppe Englaro announced his decision to take his daughter Eluana, in a coma for 17 years following a car accident, off mechanical life support. For contrast, two others are in long-term comas, and the plug can be pulled more quietly, but in the context of the national debate. Many Italians wonder whether euthanasia is a right or a sin and show very lively emotion on both sides of the issue, including families and lovers divided on the subject. A Senator (Toni Servillo) is more contemplative, as a law on the subject is being debated in parliament, and his party (Berlusconi’s party) wants him to vote against his conscience.
For Lullaby, directed by Andrew Levitas, a Jewish man (Richard Jenkins) in New York chooses to end his life of suffering after 12 years of terminal cancer, though he was only given 6 months to live when diagnosed. His wife (Anne Archer) and children display self-centered emotional responses at first and then maudlin emotion, as the patriarch lucidly persuades his family to accept his decision. His son (Garrett Hedlund), in particular, is transformed by the experience from a spoiled boy to a man with a deep sense of caring, thanks to the appearance of a former girlfriend (Amy Adams) and precious children who are dying of cancer at the same hospital. Near the end, when he appears to tire of his family’s anguish, the father asks his daughter (Jessica Brown Findlay), a budding attorney, to make the argument before him that she argued in court for an injunction to stop him from pulling the plug, knowing that her words in a hospital bedroom will fall flat.
But the question posed in both films seems to be answered by identifying special circumstances to justify the deliberate ending of life rather than invoking the concept of rights. Both films raise consciousness about the issue but leave the debate about the question to audiences. MH