by Alex Deleon

What amounts to a mini-festival of Israeli films is being presented at the  venerable old PUSKIN MOZI (Pushkin Art Cinema) in Budapest. under the sponsorship of the Israeli Embassy here. Not the very latest films but rather an overview of some of the outstanding Israeli film landmarks of the past two decades.

Opening film: "FOOTNOTES" 2012 (Hearat Shulayim)

A tale of father and son as Talmudic rivals. Director, Joseph Cedar. 103 minutes. Stars, Lior Ashkenazi and Shlomo Bar-Aba.

The opening film NOTEBOOK (Hearat Shulayim) on December 1, an unusual story about academic bickering, was an indication that things to come might be contrary to expectation.

The 2012 film was all about a batty old scholar, Eliezer Shkolnik, who has spent his life making notes on the Talmud , and is basically "out of it" (to the point that he doesn't understand what security guards are for at checkpoints) -- but the national Israeli (scholarly?) prize is mistakenly given to his handsome charismatic  professor son Uriel--

who has certain guilt feelings about the misaccreditation and struggles to set things right against stonewalling opposition.
 

The bulk of the picture is taken up with internal academic bickering over whether or not Papa should ultimately be recognized.  Basically a dramatically overweight  father and son rivalry tale. cum inwuiry into academic chicanery.  The  primarily Hungarian-Jewish audience was enthralled, but to me it was a shrill shaggy dog story, basically the making of a mountain out of a molehill. Aren't there more important things to worry about in Israel than who should get the credit for marginal notations on the Talmud?.

The father was played by Shlomo bar-Abba (66) and the son by Lior Askenazi (43) both well known Israeli actors.

 Roger Ebert in one of his last reviews, focusing on the father son relationship, gave this film a rave review mentioning that it was to be seen as a comedy. I personally saw nothing comic in it at all and, while somewhat impressed. was not quite as swept away as Roger. To me it was too much of a talkathon with too many extreme facial closeups.

Nevertheless, interesting for the portrayal of internal academic politics and backbiting.
 

PLOT:

Talmud scholar Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar-Aba) has worked in obscurity at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. In contrast, Eliezer's son, Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), also an academic, has published many books and received numerous accolades. Eliezer looks down on his son's achievements and pursuit of fame, and so the pair have a rocky relationship. Their rivalry comes to a head when Eliezer receives word that, at long last, he is the recipient of the prestigious Israeli Prize.

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