Even though It All Begins at Sea – one of the two Israeli feature films in official competition at the recent Montreal World Film Festival – came away with the festival’s Innovation Award, writer and director Eitan Green’s autobiographical slice-of-life did not necessarily tread all that much new ground.
It is a boy’s coming-of-age story, this time told through three vignettes in the life of the Goldstein family, especially son Udi, played with endearing innocence by Ron Jaegermann.
The other two main characters, naturally, are his mother, Dina (Dorit Levi-Ari), and father, Yuda (Yuval Segal), who sells furniture for a living. Both actors carry off their roles with earnest believability.
If there is a common theme running through the film and its three episodes, it is probably how the trials and tribulations of life help families – at least meant-to-be-together families – become stronger and prevail over hardship.
For example, in the first of the film’s vignettes, called The Sea, the Goldsteins set themselves up on the beach, only to have son and mom drift away on their little air mattress before they are rescued by Tuvia the lifeguard (Tzahi Grad) and Dina comes close to drowning (in the first scene Udi is portrayed by Jonathan Alster).
Like a fair number of films from Israel that try to be funny, some of the humour falls a bit flat, and some doesn’t (such as later on in the film when Udi’s English teacher, portrayed by Howard Rip, tries to re-enact prime minister’s Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in class). But Green’s lyrical style and deft direction makes it not matter all that much.
In the second episode, The Wall, which is set six years later at Ashkelon National Park – when Udi has reached virginal adolescence – Udi cracks the back of his skull while on a trip to the beach. It’s at that point that Dina and Yuda discuss trying to have a second child despite that they had a lot of fertility issues before Udi was conceived.
The third story, Home, takes place a couple of years later. The family is now living in a modern new apartment, and Dina has a premature baby girl whose fate remains unknown until just before the film’s end. Living one floor below the family now is Baruch (Asher Tsarfati), who is lifeguard Tuvia’s older brother and who scares somewhat wussy Yuda half to death when he complains about noise from their apartment. But even Baruch, like all the characters, turn out to be menschen deep down.
Also part of the running by-play through the three episodes is Udi’s relationship with his best friend, Benny (Ron Gur Arich), whose persona changes dramatically as he matures, and girl friend (as opposed to girlfriend) Udelia (Maya Ben Meir), whom Udi pines for but whose love remains unrequited.
All in all, despite the film not being particularly as innovative as its award suggests, It All Begins at Sea is a worthy addition to the catalogue of Israeli films that convey the abiding humanity of Israel and its people.
Green’s film is winning because of its utter lack of self-consciousness and pretension, as well as it artless depiction of a family’s bond.
