Comrade (2006)
After discovering that his father has lied to him for years about his estranged sister and his mother, 14-year-old Ilan runs away from home and ends up living with his sister, Dalia, who works on a cruise ship and is having an affair with a married man. While Dalia is at work, Ilan explores her down-and-out neighborhood and discovers and befriends Avram, an elderly holdout Communist living in an abandoned building with his weapons cache and marijuana-growing business, biding his time for the ultimate battle against the capitalists.
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Reviews
I love this movie so much
That was an excellent one.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Caveat: I love all Israeli films except those directed by Assi Dayán. Ironically, Dayán acts in Comrade, and puts in the strongest performance. As in Clara haKdoshá, the male lead is a young teen from a semi-dysfunctional background in his sexual awakening, thus it was hard for me not to compare them, and although I enjoyed Comrade, Clara haKdoshá wins this cinema battle -- yet not by a lot.Ilan is an appealing and sympathetic character, while Dayán's is volatile, causing us to vacillate between sympathizing with him and fearing him, although we like the bond that forms between he and Ilan.The other bond -- between Ilan and Dalia -- is stronger in its continuance that is hinted at at the close of the film than it is in the actual story. An appealing film showing the grittier side of Israel.