For better or worse, almost every Israeli film is concerned with politics. The best ones, like Joseph Cedar’s “Campfire,” marry the story to the landscape so organically that it’s impossible to separate individual behavior from social forces.
A multitiered coming-of-age drama of uncommon delicacy, “Campfire” nabbed five Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture. It was also Israel’s official submission to the Oscars in the Foreign Language Film category.
“Campfire” screens three times, beginning Thursday, March 3, at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose. It warrants a drive no matter where you live in the Bay Area.
Set in 1981 Jerusalem, “Campfire,” like last year’s “Broken Wings,” focuses on a family one year after a father’s untimely death. In both films, the mothers are so distracted that their teenage children essentially fend for themselves.
In “Campfire,” Esti (Maya Maron) is plainly bitter and uses trysts with an indifferent boyfriend as a poor substitute for the love of her mom, Rachel (Michaela Eshet). Or, possibly, as a shrill, inarticulate call for her mother’s attention.
Her younger sister Tami (Hani Furstenberg), the ostensible narrator of the story, is less independent. She humors her mother’s odd requests while hoping for a normal family life again someday.
One of Rachel’s ideas is to apply for inclusion in the founding group of a new settlement. Like the other members, she seems to think that a religious enclave in the West Bank will provide protection from the temptations of the city.
Filmmaker Cedar has an occasional joke at the settlers’ expense — when they take a day trip to the site, they’re annoyed to find cow dung — but he recognizes the sincerity and idealism of a certain segment of the Israeli population. After all, he made his debut with the religious and political thriller, “Time of Favor,” which imagined a plot by fervently religious Jews to blow up the Dome of the Rock and reclaim the Temple Mount.
“Campfire” is less interested in the settler movement, however, than in Rachel’s romantic life. She starts dating with a little encouragement from a friend who counsels, “He doesn’t need to be a knight in shining armor. He just needs to be a mensch.”
In Rachel’s case, that isn’t an admonition to settle for less but a recommendation that she give up her fantasies and reconnect with daily life.
While Rachel is enjoying the attention of various suitors, including a decent but sad-sack bus driver (Moshe Ivgi), Tami is tentatively discovering her first crush. Her curiosity, naivete and trust lead to a shocking incident at a bonfire on Lag B’Omer that the filmmaker prolongs to agonizing, stunning effect. The aftershocks are even worse in some ways, like the spray-painted graffiti the next day.
“Campfire” doesn’t imply that observant Jewish adolescents are worse, or even different, than secular teens. Nor is the episode at the bonfire meant to symbolize rampant immorality and hypocrisy at the heart of the settler movement.
The film is calibrated not in shades of black, white or even gray, but more in keeping with reality. Tami adjusts, adapts and assimilates, and life goes on. At the same time, Rachel is galvanized to reconcile her family once she gets wind of the bonfire.
It may have been easier growing up in Israel than America 40 years ago, but no longer.
Parents of any nationality will find this marvelous film disturbing, uplifting and difficult to forget.
“Campfire” screens 7 p.m., Thursday, March 3, at California Theater, 345 S. First St.; also 3 p.m., Monday, March 7, and 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 8, at Camera 12, 201 S. Second St., San Jose. Tickets: $9 at www.cinequest.org, (408) 295-3378; San Jose Repertory Theatre and San Jose State University Theater box offices.