06/09/2018 - VENICE 2018: Shown out of competition, Israeli director Amos Gitai’s flawed new film might be his warmest one yet

After 2015’s Rabin, the Last Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], depicting the events surrounding the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli director Amos Gitai comes back to the Venice Film Festival, out of competition, with a film that couldn’t possibly be more different. A Tramway in Jerusalem [+see also:
trailer
interview: Amos Gitai
film profile], whose screening was preceded by one of his political short film A Letter to a Friend in Gaza, is, well, about a tramway in Jerusalem connecting several neighbourhoods where its inhabitants come together at last, if only for a few stops. All the way from the east to the west, they talk about religion and football, sing, present new footwear and – but of course – argue about politics, revealing their deepest secrets with every exchanged word and simply trying to understand each other, however hard that may be. For all the diversity shown here, it could just as well have been called United Colours of Jerusalem.

Which is not to say that it’s all perfect, as Gitai’s film certainly feels a tad staged. Actually, after seeing it, nobody should use this expression ever again, for nothing else will surely even come close – after a while, one actually expects there to be some kind of intermission.

The lack of authenticity is certainly not helped by some uneven acting, ranging from the stiff to the wildly exaggerated, although there is some undeniable pleasure in witnessing one Pippo Delbono suddenly show up dressed as a priest, if only to quote Pier Paolo Pasolini to a clearly confused fellow traveller. Followed by… Mathieu Amalric taking on Flaubert. While mostly watchable, all of these scenes make one wonder how often Gitai actually takes public transport, as the number of people staring blankly at their phones certainly seems on the low side, especially when faced with such unexpected attractions.

“It’s an optimistic and ironic metaphor for the divided city of Jerusalem, in which we, Israelis, Palestinians and others, try to simulate how life can go on in this microcosm or ‘sardine can’ of a tramway, in the utopian days to come,” argued the director. “Beyond the current days of conflict and violence, how can people accept each other’s existence, their differences and disputes, with no killing?” While not entirely successful in his ambitious attempt to say something truly meaningful about the multi-faceted society around him, it’s hard not to notice that for all its (many) flaws, A Tramway in Jerusalem might mark the very first time he actually does so with a bit of a smile.

Co-written by Amos Gitai and Marie-José Sanselme, A Tramway in Jerusalem is an Israeli-French co-production staged by Amos Gitai, Catherine Dussart and Laurent Truchot, in association with Orange Studio, United King Films and CDP Productions. The international sales are handled by Orange Studio.