Still waters run deep in Ofir Raul Graizer’s new feature film, America, a drama about duty, companionship, and the poignancy of returning to one’s past told through the entangled lives of three lovers and friends. Returning to the director’s chair five years after his emotive debut, The Cakemaker, Graizer follows it up with a handsomely mounted piece that brims with narrative detail and visual texture. Deliberately paced, it feels like a novel in the way it handles both its theme and its characters, striving for – and delivering – a high degree of emotional maturity. Returning to Karlovy Vary, where The Cakemaker made its first bow in 2017, America appears in this year’s Crystal Globe Competition.
The narrative begins in America – a country that, despite providing the film’s title, is not really revisited again – where Eli (Michael Moshonov) is a swimming coach. When the death of his estranged father prompts his return to Tel Aviv, he is reunited with his childhood friend, Yotam (Ofri Biterman). Subsequently, when an accident leaves Yotam in intensive care, Eli strikes up a burgeoning affection for Yotam’s fiancé, Iris (Oshrat Ingedashet). The story is divided into three chapters and an epilogue, each of the first three giving slightly more focus to a different one of the three primary characters, though their lives remain entwined throughout. The first chapter, ‘The Hidden Creek’, follows Eli’s arrival back in Israel and the fall that leaves Yotam comatose; ‘The Old Urn’ details Iris’s response to Yotam’s condition and the tentative beginnings of a relationship with Eli; ‘The Good Sister’s Counsel’ follows Yotam’s sudden recovery and the ramifications for everyone involved.
The events that befall the characters throughout the film might sound quite melodramatic, but the tone of America is anything but. It’s a film filled with quiet moments and tender exchanges, in which even the more dramatic elements are treated with understated humanity and almost serene patience. All three of the lead actors excel in moments where their character just watches another, particularly Moshonov – who gazes inscrutably at everybody – and Ingedashet – who constantly seems to be scrutinising. The decisions that they make, and the reactions that they have, are captured in this way, with a moment of shared silence saying far more than histrionics ever could.
In handling its emotional stakes in this way, Graizer’s screenplay – and the room afforded by the film’s sedate pace – allows the repercussions of the different narrative twists and turns not just to land as story beats, but to breathe as ethical considerations. Even as the relationship between Iris and Eli seems to flourish, pauses allow for the audience to continual evaluate and re-evaluate their choices. Equally, in a moment in which they observe a young boy being bullied and threatened by his father in a restaurant, the distinct lack of haste asks for a response to the prospect of Eli’s intervention. Similar instances arise with regard to the characters’ backgrounds – such as the domestic abuse suffered by Eli and his mother before her suicide when he was nine, or the dissolution of Iris’ relationship with her own family over their increased religious fervour.
Beyond its dramatic components, America has an intoxicating sensory quality, particularly in its use of colour and its handling of scent. Even from the opening frames, the images are vivid and bright, but this is elevated further when Yotam and Iris’ flower shop is introduced as a recurring location. There are clear moments when colour is deployed for effect. Two locations are dusty and barren at the beginning of the film and luscious and verdant at its end – the fact that Iris is responsible for bringing the garden of Eli’s unhappy childhood home to life concurrently with their growing fondness may be a little on-the-nose, but it feels perfectly pitched. Elsewhere, scents – especially those of herbs – act as inspiration for memories and link Iris, in particular, to her past. Colour and aroma are not just used in such prescriptive ways, though, they create a tactility throughout the film that emphasises the connections between its characters. Those connections may at times be bittersweet, but that complexity and poignancy only add to America’s charm.
Director, screenplay: Ofir Raul Graizer
Producer: Itai Tamir
Cast: Oshrat Ingedashet, Michael Moshonov, Ofri Biterman
Cinematography: Omri Aloni
Editing: Michal Oppenheim, Ofir Raul Graizer
Sound: Daniel Mualem
Music: Dominique Charpentier
Art direction: Daniel Kossow, Nizan Zifrut
Production companies: Laila Films (Israel), Schiwago Film (Germany), Mimesis (Czech Republic)
Venue: Karlovy Vary (Crystal Globe Competition)
In Hebrew, English
127 minutes
