“Turn Left at the End of the World,” being screened as part of the San Jose Jewish Film Festival’s “Celebration of Israeli Cinema” Sunday, May 22, is a gem of a film.
In this case, the gem is somewhere between a diamond in the rough and a prism that reflects the multitude of angles of a community somewhere in the Negev desert circa 1968-69.
A year after the Six-Day War, an Indian family makes aliyah to Israel and moves next door to a Moroccan family that has been stuck out in the desert for 10 years, living on false promises of a better life, made by the Israeli government.
Ostensibly, the film is about the tension between these two families and cultures and their attempt to reconcile their lives. But “Turn Left” is also the coming-of-age story of the two teenage girls of each respective family and the bond they share.
Like the recently lauded Israeli film “Walk on Water,” “Turn Left” takes on several issues, with many small and charming subplots — from the Indians’ attempt to form a ragtag cricket team to the Moroccan daughter’s seduction of the handsome young teacher from Tel Aviv.
Eytan Fox, the director of “Walk on Water,” dealt with broader issues — Israelis versus Palestinians, Germans versus Jews, gay versus straight and young versus old. Avi Nesher, the director of “Turn Left,” paints more intimate portraits of fathers and daughters, daughters and mothers, new neighbors and immigrants, wives and their husbands’ mistresses.
The characters in “Turn Left” are archetypes and might be misconstrued as borderline stereotypes. (For example, the seductive widow who woos the handsome Indian cricket player or the snobby Moroccan mother who hangs on to her family myths.) Yet, they are not cliched.
The central performances of the two young actresses who form the heart of the film, the shy and serious would-be writer Sara (Neta Garty) and the bold and sexually-awakening Nicole (Liraz Charchi) are beautifully conveyed and neither overwritten nor maudlin. The sexuality and nudity is frank but not gratuitous. It serves as a reminder that Israeli cinema owes much more to a European sensibility than an American prurience.
Nicole warns Sara (who is constantly scribbling in her notebook from the moment we lay eyes on her) that she will “only have blank pages, nothing happens here … ” We know we are in for a colorful ride with the characters that populate this desert town, whose bottling factory has been closed by a strike. Nicole ominously alludes to the fact that they are remote and there is no escape, but the overall feel of the film, though not naively sunny, is still overall positive.
The late-’60s setting is nicely played out against the backdrop of striking workers, quotes from Che Guevera and comments such as: “History is funny, sometimes liberating, sometimes imprisoning.”
The sexy, yet lonely widow with the record player and the Indian father who gives dance lessons provide an authentic soundtrack to the time period, again setting a tone of the era without being cliched. Even when Nicole quotes the film “Wild in the Streets” and its admonition not to trust anybody over 30, it feels in context, real, not dated, nor over-the-top.
“Turn Left at the End of the World” is also a chance to see a slice of Jewish life that is not often on display here in America. There’s a moving funeral scene that combines a reading of the Kaddish with the presence of professional Bedouin mourners. One sees Jewish rituals played out in front of a background of tension between Jews of different ethnic backgrounds.
“In Morocco they hated the Jews, here we dislike Jews of color,” observes one of the characters in a rare display of discord presented on screen for all the world to see.
This film is a rich experience that is indeed a celebration of Israeli cinema and should not be missed.
“Turn Left at the End of the World” will show 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 22, at Camera 12 Cinema, 201 S. Second St., San Jose.