When writing about movies, Seraphic Secret usually focuses on Hollywood.
But this silent film, “Banim Bonim” Land of Promise, is a documentary/travelogue from 1924 that is fascinating. The second reel is missing, but it’s still 41 minutes long.
Take a look, and then some comments.
As with most documentaries, the film was carefully constructed to look like reality. In fact, all the scenes were carefully arranged, and though the “cast members” were not professional actors their entrances, exits and all their gestures—waving hats, pointing, engaging in conversation—were rehearsed and then shot. The lighting is flat and artless. No reflectors were used to soften the harsh sunlight.
The subjects in the film are charmingly awkward, frequently glancing into the camera. They stiffly enter frame, try and hit their marks, and then self-consciously exit the scene. We’re a long way from the media savvy frights of “The Real Wives of Orange County.”
Make no mistake about it, this is a propaganda film and the imagery (absent a driving narrative) has been influenced by Soviet films of the era which idealized workers and the land. But this is propaganda with Judaism at its core with intertitles such as: Rebuild the land of your Fathers for the sake of your children.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
