Clevercell Very disappointing...

Wordiezett So much average

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

maurice yacowar Joseph Cedar's Campfire takes the 2004 perspective on the West Bank settlements as they were approached in 1981. Hindsight exposes the ostensible idealism behind the settlement movement as a violent, aggressive macho strut.The foreground story of a one-year widow Rachel, her sexually active and angry daughter Esti and her blossoming teen Tami (who narrates), reflects upon the background story of an ideologically based new settlement planned for the windy desert near Ramallah. Seeking some assurance of community, Rachel is determined to move with her daughters to that settlement, despite its committee's reluctance to admit a manless family who can't contribute to the guard duties. Only Rachel's long friendship with the commune's chief Motkeh's wife gains her even tentative acceptance.The high-blown principles of the settlement are exposed by Motkeh's callous response to Tami's sexual assault at the festival bonfire. The rough, vicious boys and Motkeh's own hypocritical son reveal a lawlessness and macho bullying underneath the settlement's pretences. That confirms the film's first theme, the vulnerability of women, from Rachel hiding her husband's death from potential car-buyers, to the settlement committee's doubts about her, to the boys' abuse of Tami, which moves from verbal to physical and back to the verbal slander of the graffiti. The arid macho wind of the settlement — in men and boys alike — contrasts to the softness of the bus driver Yossi, who admits to Rachel he's a virgin and to Tami that he may lack what it takes ever to marry. When he takes Rachel on a dinner date in his empty bus it's an emblem of a community resource, awaiting fulfilment. His use of his job on a date improves from the contrast to the cantor's burst of Kol Nidrei on the hotel steps on his first date with Rachel.With all the men in kipahs Cedar frames out the secular Israel. This film is about the religious aspirants and their suspect attitude toward the isolation and loss among its citizenry. In both the cantor's Kol Nidrei and his choral lead bemoaning the people's pathetic condition, viewed from the heavens, the vanity of the singer swamps the submission of the song. Hence the poetic justice when he steps in the cow dung on the settlement's tour with Yossi. So, too, the military's representation by two soldiers, Esti's uniformed beau, who shows respect for her mother and accepts Esti's restraints, and the out-of-uniform boor who has no friends his own age so hangs out with the young boys and violates Tami. Any man's army is ambivalent like that. Despite Motkeh's communitarian pretensions and the cantor's false modesty and religious pretences, the effective hero is Yossi. He immediately appreciates Rachel more deeply than even her long-term friends do. He means his offer of a bus ride whenever she needs, no strings attached. He's comfortable with her daughters but feels no need to impress them. As he revives the family's dead battery, he restores Rachel's warmth and openness and in general provides a humanity and respect the settlement organizers lack. In the last scene the bus driver sits with Tami in the back seat while Esti drives the family car, her mother at her side. Yossi's unpretentious service is the film's dominant value. A modest but sincere personal commitment trumps the more problematic claims of the organized new community. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.

pik923 I just watched this film! Sorry it took so long. I am impressed at how the Israeli Film Industry is developing and maturing. That is the real importance of this film! Well done to everyone. The acting was great! Everyone did a wonderful job. Yes let's be honest they had a good intelligent sensitive and strong script to work with. I wasn't sure where the story would take us, would it keep within that sort of comic story-line or was it going to develop into something more dramatic? Would it go over the top, as many Israeli films have a tendency to do (mostly lack of craft and self confidence in directors and editors) or would the film develop the characters with that same strength as it started with.It just got better and better! The editing was good too - well done. I am impressed. Congratulations to the director, producers, actors, the entire crew.The politics of that era? That was a good setting and an interesting way to tell this story. It did not distract from the story, it gave it a good strong setting, it gave it a fundamental foundation on which the writer was able to develop his love of craft.The set design was good, keeping within the world of the early 1980s - yes these points are important in making a film.I enjoyed every moment of the film!!! I loved the scene where Tammy is in the apartment by herself, singing and dancing and being a teenage girl in her 'performing imagination' it was wonderful! Hani did a GREAT job!Everyone and everything was convincing. Again congratulations!

DICK STEEL Campfire (Medurat Hasevet) marks the last film for me during the Israel Film Festival, and personally, I thought this film was the most mature of the lot, being honest in exploring the lives and relationships in all members of a single parent family. Being all women in the house, recently widowed Rachel Gerlik (Michaela Eshet) takes great pains in order to protect her daughters Esti (Maya Maron) and Tami (Hani Furstenberg) from growing pains, and it is in the characters that we see an observation of romance in three forms.For Rachel, it is a second chance at real romance. She admits to her daughters that she has never been in love, not even with their father, and opportunity comes in the form of Yossi (Moshe Ivgy) the bus driver, who's attentive and sincere, and while having his own awkward moments at professing his love, you're likely to root for him to get his girl. Rachel though has her hands full, in juggling a fight to be accepted by her community in order to relocate to the new West Bank settlement to start life afresh, now made complicated by a potential love, and in trying to reconnect with her daughters.In elder daughter Esti, we see budding puppy love, as well as her very distinct opposition with her mom, stemming from Rachel's refusal to provide her with some privacy at home. I guess every parent will have to face their kids at this point in their teenage lives, and hopefully live to tell the tale of triumphant tolerance in the face of constant cynicism. And lastly, probably the saddest of the lot, with Tami and her brush with one ugly emotion of Lust. The English title at least, refers to a pivotal moment in the story which involves around the Bonfire incident, and you can't help but seethe with rage, where writer-director Joseph Cedar succeeds in eliciting anger with a sense of helplessness, and deep despair.What succeeded too is the performance of Hani Furstenberg in fleshing our her character, as we witness her credible spectrum of emotions ranging from the damsel in distress, and in being able to draw strength from within to deal with her terrible ordeal. Her chemistry with Michaela Eshet is quite amazing, and you will definitely be moved at how their characters interact with each other in the dealing with the fallout, even though it was just a short scene. I guess nobody should be made to suffer in that manner without clear repercussions or punishment, but reminds you in real life that sometimes there are situations where you can't expect everything to go in your favour, even though you're right and are seeking justice.Instead, we see how one can face up to adversary in whichever form they take, and through Rachel, we realize that the well intent of others, who subconsciously impose their will and thoughts onto yourself, becomes enslaving, and there comes a time where one must break free. Free from living a life dictated by the community, of the need to conform unnecessarily, and to learn to stand on your own two feet. Michaela Eshet encapsulates this development of her character, and you can't help but to cheer silently when she finally breaks free from a mindset bondage.It might be a small movie with a small principle cast, but its message and lesson couldn't be more than relevant, especially when it comes to the notion of blood being thicker than water, with a mother's love that knows no bounds.

Marian Paroo I think people either love or hate this movie, and their politics will have an influence, of course.The movie shows the less than pretty side of the settler movement and the national religious wing -- the sexism, the hostility toward anyone that doesn't fit the exact mold (even if they support the movement politically), the racism.The heroine who thinks that going off to a settlement in the occupied territories is - surprise, surprise! - shocked to discover that as a woman without a man, getting accepted will be an uphill struggle (they tell her straight out they need men for not only defense, but prayer quorums, as women don't count there). The near rape of the younger daughter is by nationalistic religious boys who are on the outskirts of their own movement because of their dark skin (the very fundamentalist Shas movement is the result of this discrimination within the religious community, but that's another story).Of course the religious/settlement people will hate this movie. The people responsible for sending it out of the country will probably be called traitors (and I wouldn't be surprised if there are death threats) for showing the warty side of the settlers among themselves, never mind towards the Palestinians.Gaon is sure a hoot in his role -- by the way, in real life he is rather center left.