Haganenet

Very distinct. An arthouse fable, ascribing grandiose importance to poems, maybe as a heightened, i.e. poetic way to get to otherwise ordinary feelings of existential loneliness. And in these perimeters it does quite extraordinary, playful things; sometimes showing off technique just to prove how alert it is to its skewed material. I'm even reminded of Eric Rohmer's thoughtfulness and complexity.

Not as bad as Lapid's debut, this is still a case of blatantly contrived writing, and he does not seem to understand poetry or how the poetry world works.

So israel is provincial and everything and everyone sucks, right?

I'm fond of a lot of what's going on with the camera here, as this psychological study progresses into increasingly uncomfortable territory. The regular use of close up suggests a subjectivity to the events that often obscures the motives of the lead characters. I found the final product unsatisfying, however, as its theme extolling poetic attentiveness seems completely out of place with the bizarre obsessive behavior of the teacher.