Gitai delivers an amazing film every bit as satisfying as his masterpiece Kippur (2001).
Comment
02/01/05
Alila (2004)
41 %
Reviews Counted: 17 Fresh: 7 Rotten:10 Average Rating: 5.3/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 3 mins
Synopsis: Amos Gitai's ALILA intertwines the stories of over a dozen distinct characters who inhabit an apartment complex located in a rundown neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Holocaust survivor Schwartz (Yosef Carmon) has enjoyed a peaceful existence living in his small apartment with Linda (Lyn... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Uri Ran Klauzner, Yael Abecassis, Ronit Elkabetz, Amos Lavie, Liron Levo
Reviews
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Suggesting that the strain of the Arab conflict has gotten to the Israelis and that peace might only be a pipe dream.
11/24/04
...Gitai has populated the story with one unlikable character after another, making it impossible for the viewer to connect with anything on screen.
08/21/04
The story and even the characters turn out to be less interesting than the overview it gives us of the way Israelis live now, its portrait of a dislocated society where despair rumbles beneath the surface of everyday life.
06/10/04
Top Critic
For non-Israeli audiences, Alila is an alternately illuminating and confounding glimpse into seldom-seen aspects of the country.
06/10/04
Though absorbing enough, Alila must be counted a noble failure, if only because its efforts to follow the screwed-up lives of 12 hapless souls in a seedy Tel Aviv apartment building finally add up more to mere mimicry than commentary.
06/10/04
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06/05/04
Gitaļ's portrait of self-destructive lives is certainly honest, but his direction is suffocating.
04/22/04
None of the characters or situations truly manages to hold our attention, though there are some arresting moments.
03/04/04
Top Critic
Another piece of essential viewing for outsiders trying to understand life in the Middle East.
02/26/04
An interesting, if not entirely successful, adaptation of an excellent book.
02/26/04
Amos Gitai's acidly comic study of life in a flimsy Tel Aviv apartment complex is a sour urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces.
02/26/04
Top CriticClick to read the article
02/24/04
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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