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January 23, 2009
Israelis in army service
Mechina and filmmaker at Ridge Theatre Jan. 29.
PAT JOHNSON
At a time when the Israeli military is being condemned in the most dehumanizing terms by critics, a documentary film screening in Vancouver next week humanizes the experience of Israeli young people facing mandatory military service.
Mechina: A Preparation follows a group of Israeli friends as they spend a year in an army preparatory program. The group addresses their individual fears and hopes, questioning their country's policies, analyzing their own potential to fulfil the role demanded of them as citizens of a state under constant threat of attack.
The documentary emerged as a personal project, filmmaker Maital Guttman told the Independent in a telephone interview this week. Guttman was not a film student, but she recognized a story when she saw one. Growing up in the United States, she faced the same things as her peers – finishing high school, choosing a college, managing her social life; typical American young adult stuff. Her Israeli cousin, Amitai Sawicki, was having a very different experience. It was a contrast Guttman wanted to document and the resulting film is a testament to the resilience of idealism among Israeli youth, even as they face ethical conflicts and their own mortality.
"I grew up in a really pro-Israel environment," Guttman said, but, when she entered college, the environment was changing. Anti-Israel rhetoric was intensifying in conjunction with the second intifada, with sensational headlines of a "cycle of violence" spawning waves of student activism that were leaving Jewish students isolated and often afraid. In contrast to the experience of the American college students who were angrily condemning Israel, Guttman videotaped the thoughtful, probing introspection of Sawicki and his Israeli friends. In the film, the young people wonder whether they have the capability to kill if necessary. They debate the challenges confronting their generation, their nation and their people. They attend a peace rally in Rabin Square, despite fears of terrorist threats.
Mechina is not about soldiers. It is about young people facing a national obligation, obligatory military service, and potential combat that most North American young people have not had to face in generations.
"It's a film that doesn't point fingers," Guttman said. "In such a contentious place, it's easy to fuel the flame with blame. This is my attempt to just show the personal, positive story beyond the headlines."
The interviews were done prior to the disengagement from Gaza and the Second Lebanon War. The young people were involved in various operations relating to these events, but their military experiences are not part of this film. A sequel is a possibility, Guttman said, but not until she finishes some current projects.
Guttman said that the ideal of the Gaza pullout – that Palestinians in Gaza would be free to create the structures of a state that could live in peace beside Israel – has proved sadly optimistic.
"It's been a very big disappointment, kind of a disillusionment," she said of the hopes that the Gaza disengagement would be a first step to a resolution. But the film has provided an opportunity to address some of the issues being discussed around campuses and elsewhere.
Mechina has been accepted at face value, Guttman said, without negative reactions based on political animosities or other preconceptions. What criticism she has heard has been from within the Jewish community, mostly from those who opposed the Gaza pullout, which some of the film's participants supported, but even that has been insignificant, she said. More often, the response has been unifying, she explained. At one campus screening, Guttman said a Palestinian activist and an Israel activist found common ground, telling Guttman, "I'm pro-Palestinian, he's pro-Israel, but we're all pro-peace."
Guttman's other projects include Three in a Million, which tells the story of three young people from South Africa's AIDS-ravaged townships, who create "hero books" – a genre of fiction in which the writer is a superhero and the nemeses they overcome are personified monsters like anger, jealousy and longing for an absent parent. The documentary is about a program that helps AIDS orphans, kids with HIV and others affected by the cataclysm to empower themselves.
Another film Guttman made, Whatint Abafazi, was screened at the international AIDS conference. The title translates as "When you strike a woman," which is a reference to an apartheid-era slogan about the strength of women, which says, "When you strike a woman, you strike a rock."
Mechina will be at the Ridge Theatre Jan. 29, 7 p.m. The screening is sponsored by Vancouver Hillel and the Vancouver Jewish Film Society, and Guttman will be on hand to answer questions.
Pat Johnson is, among other things, managing director, programs and communications, for the Vancouver Hillel Foundation.
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