This biopic of the life of Thedore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, is an earnest movie and shows the influences that caused him to seek a renewed homeland for Jews in what is now Israel. The movie spends, properly enough, a lot of screen time demonstrating anti-semitism in forms from accusations of well-poisoning to the Inquisition to the Dreyfus Case to demonstrate why Jews needed their own country.
However, the net thrust of the movie is on the order of preaching to the converted. The static camera shots, the story told through title cards, and old-fashioned techniques -- including antiquated Magic Lantern method of showing Herzl's thoughts in a small rectangle in the upper right-hand corner of the screen -- work against making this a good movie to show to Gentiles to bring them to the cause of supporting Zionism; and the acting is overly large and stagy.
However, the net thrust of the movie is on the order of preaching to the converted. The static camera shots, the story told through title cards, and old-fashioned techniques -- including antiquated Magic Lantern method of showing Herzl's thoughts in a small rectangle in the upper right-hand corner of the screen -- work against making this a good movie to show to Gentiles to bring them to the cause of supporting Zionism; and the acting is overly large and stagy.