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Sept. 28, 2007
Last out of Lebanon
Docudrama captures misguided mission at fort.
KELLEY KORBIN
In the first days of the 1982 Lebanon War, the Israel Defence Forces
(IDF) captured Beaufort Castle, a 12th-century Crusader fortress
atop a hill in southern Lebanon. Most recently, the castle had been
a Palestinian Liberation Organization stronghold used as a site
to fire rockets into northern Israel. Its takeover was brutal and
controversial in leftist Israeli circles.
Eighteen years later, after considerable public protest led by the
grassroots Four Mothers movement, the IDF retreated from Lebanon
and Beaufort Castle.
The docudrama Beaufort is the story of the last few weeks
of IDF control over the outpost. In particular, it is the story
of the last commander of that post, 22-year-old Liraz Liberti (convincingly
played by Israeli Oshri Cohen).
Liraz is plagued by the conflicting demands of respecting authority,
protecting his troops, his own palpable fear and his innate need
to protect the memory of the soldiers and the hero myth that surrounds
the capture of the fortress.
In the last days at Beaufort, the troops who are there to guard
it face an inundation of mortar shells and missile strikes from
Hezbollah, which is hoping to make Israel's retreat look like weakness.
Three soldiers are killed and one injured in what seem to be, given
the fact that Israel's imminent retreat is no secret, senseless
circumstances dictated by unseen military leaders only portrayed
as voices on the end of phone lines. It is up to Liraz to execute
these orders, which often run counter to his instincts as a soldier
and as a human being.
Joseph Cedar's film, based on Ron Leshem's book Im Yesh Gan Eden
(If There is a Heaven) provides a beautiful and complex look
at the lives and relationships of soldiers who don't necessarily
believe in what they're doing, but who, even under intense psychological
pressure, ultimately comply with the rules of authority dictated
by their army training.
While Beaufort is not an action film, there is plenty of
suspense. The troops continually face dangerous solitary guard duties,
often on eerily foggy nights, while eagerly awaiting orders to evacuate
and destroy the bunkers that have been housed by IDF troops for
close to two decades.
The film provides a realistic insight into the lives and attitudes
of a new generation of IDF soldiers. It is well worth seeing.
Beaufort, in Hebrew with English subtitles, shows at the
Vancouver International Film Festival on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 9
p.m., and Monday, Oct. 1, at 1 p.m.
Doc loses its thread
In Keepers of Eden, what begins as a seemingly classic 1960s
anthropological film about the Huaorani Indians of Ecuador, replete
with loin cloths and poison blow darts, morphs into an Michael Moore
wannabe-style exposé of the damage petroleum companies have
perpetrated on the Huoarani homeland and culture.
Traditionally, the Huaorani were a patriarchal, semi-nomadic warrior
culture that moved throughout five million acres of South American
rainforest. Since being introduced to western culture in the 1950s
and 1960s, they have been displaced and relocated to more permanent
villages, mainly in or near Yasuni National Park, on the Equator,
where the Amazon River meets the Andes Ridge.
In the film, Yasuni National Park is dubbed "the most biodiverse
place on earth," as it is home to more amphibian and insect
species than the rest of the planet combined. It also has more plants
and animals in every 2.5 acres than on the entire continent of North
America.
Given these facts, the significant environmental damage that petroleum
companies have created with the development of roads through the
jungle and, more critically, with their poor practices surrounding
the toxic byproducts of petroleum development and transport, is
certainly worthy of world attention and condemnation.
The Huaorani, who have borne the brunt of the fallout of 40 years
of dirty petroleum exploration and extraction in the region, are
beginning to use their warrior instincts to fight back at the gas
companies and the Ecuadorian government, who has not provided nearly
adequate safety nets in the form of regulation or monitoring, for
the people or plants or animals who inhabit the region.
Unfortunately, while the message is loud and clear in director Yoram
Porath's documentary, the production elements of Keepers of Eden
are rather disjointed; somewhat incomplete in the form of what is
supposed to be animated maps that basically have an "Under
Development" notice superimposed on them; and short on footage,
as he repeatedly uses scenes of the same polluted ponds, dripping
pipes and water tanks that apparently contain contaminated water.
The interviews with government and petroleum officials are not nearly
the hard-hitting stuff we're used to seeing in this type of combative
documentary and those with the Huaorani often seem a little off
topic. Furthermore, the film, at 80 minutes, is too long in its
current form and even the most fervrent environmentalists might
find themselves losing its thread more than once.
Keepers of Eden shows on Monday, Oct. 1, at 4:30 p.m., and
Sunday, Oct. 7, at 9:15 p.m. For complete screening information,
visit www.viff.org.
Kelley Korbin is a freelance writer living in West Vancouver.
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