« Olmert's Gaza Incursion Plan is Folly | Main | The Jew Haters of the Methodist Church »
February 18, 2008
Home Game
“I had to do something, I wasn't sure what it was, and then I saw some home video that people from Gaza were shooting and it was just so heartbreaking and I said to myself, people have to see this footage.”
Producer Avi Abelow is sitting in my office describing how his film Home Game came into existence. Avi is soft-spoken, modest, but a passionate young man. It turns out that he lives in Efrat, just a few blocks away from Karen's brother David and his wife Elana.
It's a small Jewish world.
“So I started collecting all the footage I could from the settlers in Gaza, the people who were being expelled from their homes.”
“Avi, I have an idea, let's not call them settlers, that's become a pejorative term, let's call them Pioneers. Language counts. Words have power.”
Avi smiles and continues: “Okay, I like that. Anyway, Before I know it I have hours and hours of video and it's all just amazing, but I have no idea how to pull it together. But thank G-d, my editor is a genius. He points out that during the 2005 disengagement, there was a basketball tournament taking place. In other words, normal teenage life was going on in the midst of this horrendous expulsion. So we decide to build the film around the basketball footage.”
“You found your metaphor.”
“Exactly. ”
Home Game is a film about the painful and tragic human cost of the Gaza disengagement, where 9,000 Jews were expelled from their homes by other Jews. It was a triumph for jihad, a success for Islamic terrorism, and a low-point in Jewish history. The expulsion proved that terror works, that those who call for appeasement never learn the dark lessons of history.
Gaza is Judenrein and is now a forward base for Hizbullah and a dozen other Islamic terrorist gangs. Rocket and mortar attacks on Israel have only increased since the expulsion. The Gaza tragedy is a national disgrace and a security nightmare.
The film is a multi-layered narrative that shows the residents of the Gaza villages during the various stages of the expulsion.
These multi-strands are anchored by the basketball tournament. The riveting footage is interwoven with frank yet charming studio interviews with several home team basketball players and a lovely, articulate young Israeli woman who picked up a video camera and became a reluctant but somewhat obsessive chronicler of the horrifying expulsion that pitted Jew against Jew.
There are moments that are so raw, so painful, that you feel as if you're a peeping tom in a terrible family squabble. I almost wept as an anguished female soldier kneels and tries to console her friend while at the same time expelling her from her home. Meanwhile, an irate young man howls at the female soldier's commanding officer: “Look at what you've done to her, look at what you've turned her into. She used to be such a fine girl. Look what you're making her do to her friends.”
Another IDF Officer calmly explains to a Pioneer: “I'm just following orders.”
The Pioneer, an anguished and furious Israeli with a Yemenite Hebrew accent, explodes: “Don't say that. That's a terrible sentence. What will you say to your children tonight when you go home, what will you tell them, that you expelled Jews from their homes!”
The IDF officer does not respond, he just turns around and walks away.
Home Game builds in intensity. Meanwhile, the teenagers, kids who just want to have normal lives, try and lead normal lives as their world crumbles.
This is a powerful film, and I urge everyone, no matter what your political leaning, to purchase it.
Avi Abelow has plans for several more films about the Israeli experience through his new company 12 Tribe Films. We look forward to more great work from this fine young talent.
You can watch the movie online for three days by renting it.
Today's Links:
I have no idea what happened, but I never received Haveil Havalim #154 yesterday. I figured maybe I offended somebody out there in the Jewish blogosphere and was thrust into some kind of cyber leper colony. Anywhoo, I just came across #154 and Esser Agaroth has done a really neat job of collecting the Best of the Jewish Blogosphere. We'd like to thank Esser Agaroth for including our post The Decline and Fall of the State of Israel in this round-up.
Seraphic Friend Treppenwitz comments on the Olmert-Livni plan to surrender the Israeli-Gaza border to international troops. The Definition of Insanity.
Gaza to Denmark: Bomb and Slaughter the Danes. Hey, I wonder how much money the Danes have donated to the peace-loving Pals? Nice payback.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at February 18, 2008 09:27 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
"where 9,000 Jews were expelled from their homes by other Jews"
Olmert has begun rewriting history. In today's Jerusalem Post, boasting about the efficacy of the disengagement, Olmert stated that there were 1200 Jews in Gaza being protected by 30,000 soldiers. He is so proud of the disengagement. What a fool! Does he not realize that the troops in Gaza were protecting all of Israel? Is he blind to the fact that now hundreds of thousands are threatened daily by the terror-fascist regime that he helped put in power? How much longer will he pursuit policies that without G-d's intervention will lead to Israel's destruction?
Pray for the people of Israel. Our situation is deteriorating rapidly.
Posted by: David at February 18, 2008 02:57 PM
B"H I only now see that you did not receive notification. Soccer Dad used to send something out. When I host I send out an e-mail to contributors and an e-mail to a bunch of other people. It was an honest mistake than I forgot to click the little box next to your name in my address book. Honest.
I do not see how you could've offended anyone.
:-)
Posted by: Ben-Yehudah at February 18, 2008 03:34 PM
David:
Yes, I noticed Olmert's sleight of hand in the article. He's a bit like as Holocaust denier now. Well, what can you expect from a man who now heads up a new Judenrat.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 18, 2008 09:09 PM
Ben-Yehudah:
Thanks so much for the explanation.
BTW, I have many enemies ;)
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at February 18, 2008 09:12 PM
the Olmert stuff and the Home Game film is just too depressing for words,
countless people don't want him running the government, but no one knows quite what to do ;-(((
here is a Dry Bones take on it:
http://drybonesblog.blogspot.com/http://drybonesblog.blogspot.com/
check his comments and the conference on Jerusalem
(i read somewhere on someone's blog, but don't remember whose, that Shas said they would leave the government if Olmert was negotiating over Jerusalem.
i suspect that other parties might 'also' leave,
and that this [according to the blog i read] was the reason for Olmert's decision to invade Gaza,
so that he could claim 'national crisis/war' and convince people not to dissolve the government,
hopefully, after the Jerusalem conference, the Olmert gov. WILL IY"H be dissolved and a saner government will be reformed)
because things are so depressing,
here is some good news, and some interesting news,
from lgf:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=28983_Canadian_Human_Rights_Investigator_Resigns&only
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=28982_Weird_Science_Watch&only
maybe the Iraqi astronomer can be offered a job advising Iran's nuclear program according to strict Koranic science ...
Posted by: exdemexlib at February 19, 2008 06:41 AM
Revenant is the term preferred by Yisrael Medad. Carl prefers it too.
Posted by: soccer dad at February 19, 2008 11:46 AM
Exdem:
Depressing and infuriating. I know what to do about the Olmert govt. Get rid of the appeasers. They have no discernible ideology other than holding on to power. This is the road to national suicide.
Thanks so much for the excellent links.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at February 19, 2008 12:59 PM
Soccer Dad:
Hollywood screenwriters have a very simple rule: never use a word in a script that will send the reader to a dictionary. It's death for the project.
Revenant is such a word.
Not only that, my dictionary, the New Oxford American Dictionary, gives this sunny definition: a person who has returned, esp. supposedly from the dead. Shades of a George Romero “Living Dead” flick. Not a smart association for the Jewish State.
Respectfully, I favor Pioneer because it's the simple translation of Halutz, the Hebrew term for those who built the State of Israel.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at February 19, 2008 01:11 PM
You made the same point about Haveil Havalim.
(I never changed it because I thought a new name would be more confusing than keeping the old less than ideal name.)
Understood.
I assume that Yisrael and Carl like it in the Dry Bones sense though.
Posted by: soccer dad at February 19, 2008 01:26 PM
Soccer Dad:
You probably made the right call about Haveil Havalim, though I'm careful in my blog to add the super title: “The Best of the Jewish Blogosphere” for those who don't speak Hebrew—just about everybody in the universe.
As for Revenant.
Sigh, head in hands, migraine threatening the cerebellum.
What can I say: We Jews have enough problems without saddling our brave Pioneers with the Edsel of words.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at February 19, 2008 01:36 PM
Soccer Dad used to send something out.
I have tried to continue the practice. This time I fell short due to a severe case of Shamuitis.
Posted by: Jack at February 19, 2008 10:57 PM
Jack:
:)
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at February 20, 2008 10:08 AM
I have seen Home Game, right after it came out. Einat is a friend, she visited us here in Florida last year and we did our best to promote the film. This link goes to an interview she did about the film, its in Hebrew:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=O1gbeUOMxec
Home Game is an emotional, raw, and important film. Thank you for posting about it.
All my best to you and your family.
Posted by: LindaSoG at February 24, 2008 04:24 AM
Linda:
Thanks so much for the kind words and for the wonderful link. Keep up the fine work with your blog.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at February 24, 2008 02:59 PM