Unsettled Land

Unsettled Land
	Film poster
Directed by	Uri Barbash
Produced by	Ludi Boeken; Katriel Schori; Ben Elkerbout
Screenplay by	Benny Barwash; Eran Preis
Starring	Kelly McGillis; John Shea; Christine Boisson
Music by	Misha Segal
Cinematography	Amnon Salomon
Edited by	Tova Asher
Production; company	Belbo Films
Distributed by	GSO (France); Hemdale Film (US); J. L. Bowbank (Canada)
Release date	September 26, 1987 (Tokyo International Film Festival); January 13, 1989 (US); January 30, 1990 (France);
Running time	109 minutes
Country	Israel; Netherlands
Language	Hebrew; English
Budget	$2,000,000[1]

Unsettled Land (Hebrew: החולמים‎, lit. The Dreamers; also known as Once We Were Dreamers) is a 1987 Israeli drama directed by Uri Barbash.

The film premiered in the International Competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and was selected to be shown at the Israel Film Festival in New York. It also won awards for Best Cinematography (Amnon Salomon) and Best Art Direction (Eitan Levy) at the Israel Film Center.[2]

Plot

In 1919, a group of idealistic Jewish pioneers from Europe, including Austrian doctor Anda (Kelly McGillis) and her Russian violinist lover Marcus (John Shea) who was a former yeshiva student and became a fervent Labor Zionist after the murder of his family in a pogrom, arrive in Palestine and attempt to establish a kibbutz in the Galilee. Their dream ends up shattered as they attempt to cope with the hardships of the land, sexual and ideological tensions within the group, and hostile confrontations with their Arab neighbours. Finally, the film dramatizes their disappointment as they must come to terms with the gaps between their utopian vision and reality.

As Miri Talmon has noted, the film "makes a clear intergenerational connection between the ‘pioneers’ and the shattering of the dream, which is the experience that the audience and the individual filmgoer faced at the end of the eighties.”[3]

Cast

Kelly McGillis as Anda
John Shea as Marcus
Christine Boisson as Sima
Arnon Zadok as Amnon
Robert Pollock as Yulek
Sinai Peter as Daniel
Neta Moran as Temma
Amos Lavi as Muhammed
Boris Rimmer as Avrum
Alan Bergreen as Natan
Martha Arden as Rosa
Rachel Amran as Maha
Avi Gouetta as Salim Assistant 2
Yossi Ashdot as Shepard

Critical reception

Despite its rather large budget and Hollywood stars, the film did poorly at the box office and garnered poor reviews.[1]

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References

Judd Ne'eman, "Israeli Cinema," in O. Leaman, ed., Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film (Routledge, 2001), p. 270.
Amy Kronish and Costel Safirman, Israeli Film: A Reference Guide (Praeger, 2003), p. 109.
Quoted in Eldad Kedem, "Kibbutz Films in Transition: From Morality to Ethics," in M. Talmon and Y. Peleg, eds., Israeli Cinema: Identities in Crisis (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), p. 328.

External links

Unsettled Land on IMDb
Unsettled Land at Rotten Tomatoes

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[Ne'eman-1] Judd Ne'eman, "Israeli Cinema," in O. Leaman, ed., Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film (Routledge, 2001), p. 270.

[2] Amy Kronish and Costel Safirman, Israeli Film: A Reference Guide (Praeger, 2003), p. 109.

[3] Quoted in Eldad Kedem, "Kibbutz Films in Transition: From Morality to Ethics," in M. Talmon and Y. Peleg, eds., Israeli Cinema: Identities in Crisis (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), p. 328.