When MGM released the English version of this Israeli movie musical in the United States in 1974, I dismissed it back then as an interesting but derivative film that seemed to borrow quite a bit from "West Side Story" and "Fiddler on the Roof." Seeing the Hebrew version of "Kazablan" all these years later (with English subtitles), my opinion of its artistic merits hasn't really changed: the songs are mildly catchy, the choreography uninspired, the plot serviceable. But this time, I found the film's slice of Israeli life much more fascinating. There's a marketplace musical number (shades of "Tradition" from "Fiddler") celebrating the diversity of Israeli Jews. But, as the film makes painfully clear, where there is diversity, there is also bound to be discrimination. (A central conflict of the movie involves differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews.)
Never having been to Israel, I can't say personally whether "Kazablan" accurately depicts Israeli society, past or present. (A friend who used to live there tells me that over the years, what with the growing number of native-born Israelis, the schism between the Ashkenazim and Sephardim isn't as great as it used to be.) But this movie does provide an illuminating inside look for those who think they know what Israel is like solely from watching TV newscasts. It's a pointed reminder that there are many different ways of being Israeli (just as there are many different ways of being American).
