Retratos de Nitzanim

Exceptional movie. Someone wrote it is anti-war movie. It is not anti-war movie, it is anti those who start the wars, who abuse peoples' elevated emotions and send them to kill and to be killed, instead of trying to resolve the existing grievances in a peaceful way. It also directed against those who makes an entertainment from the human tragedies depicting them as an "image of victory", just like ancient Romans found a fun in watching gladiators fights. It tells how little progress we made in the last 2000 years, despite our achievement in technology and science. It also gives a clever idea that what you may see as your victory in reality could be the image of your defeat.

One objection I have to the movie is how it portrays Aba Kovner. Aba Kovner was one of the leaders of the unground resistance in Vilnius ghetto, a heroic fighter against Nazis and a prolific poet. You can find more information about him by surfing the internet.

Since I know the area and some of the stories from Israel's independence war, it was interesting to see our history come to life. The storyline is good and so are the actors but some of the scenes, specifically some of the battle scenes, seem amateurish, but maybe it's because that's how untrained soldiers and new immigrants fought at the time. Trying to bring the story from both sides of the conflict is interesting, humanizing the other side. Worth watching!

War always attracts me and the post ww2 middle east is like putting a hand inside a nest of yellow jackets, also when reviewing.....

its 1947-48, a kibbutz that has been established around gaza-strip, maybe further north, is repeatedly under attack from arab neighbours. The kibbutz becomes heavily fortified by military involvement, and its a rag and tag highly sophisticated drama in arabic and jiddisch evolves. At the day that mr ben-gurion declares the israeli state a war breaks out, and its the fatality of that escalation that you will meet when watching ''image of victory''.

Its not a supertechnical production, there are plotholes and minor flaws here and there, some low tech special effects, but there is an eerie athmosphere lingering there , its like the song ''ship to shore'', a bad communication ephistel, a flick inspired by actual events.

The acting is fun, consistent and good, and good comedy twined into the grave serious issues taking place is relieving and precious. But most of all its a drama about love trust and sacrifice. A recmmend from the grumpy old man.

It's an amazon movie, the best of Avi Nesher so far (and he produced many great movies). The story as well as the actors, plot, soundtrack and camera effects - all is just perfect. I don't want to write any spoilers but I really encourage you to see it in the cinema (better than on Netflix)

I almost never watch foreign language films but was enticed by the appeal to actual events, and I actually enjoyed those aspects of the film. The acting was fairly good and the humorous parts were plausible. What I disliked was the portrayal of the Egyptian film Director. It's hard for me to digest a dyed-in-the-wool antagonist being 'haunted' by the woman's smile. The film reminded me of the pro-war films during the post-WW2 and Vietnam eras: "We" are good and 'the Other' is evil/incompetent'.

This film happened to be well done, with some human interest threads.