User Reviews

Zaytoun is the newest film by Israeli director Eran Riklis, easily one of the most significant directors these days when it comes to depicting Israeli characters (and like here also occasionally Palestinean influence). I watched his movie Playoff earlier this year. It's already from 2011, but it took so long to get here and I liked that one quite a bit mostly thanks to Danny Huston very fine portrayal, so I was curious about Riklis' newest work. "Zaytoun" centers around an Israeli soldier taken into captivity by Palestinians and how his relationship to a young boy, one of his captors, changes both their lives.

The soldier is played by known Hollywood actor Stephen Dorff and the boy is played by Abdallah El Akal, a talented child actor with quite an impressive body of work for a 15-year-old. His character here is initially an Israeli-hating mini-terrorist participating willingly in the psychological torture that is exacted on Dorff's character. When not much later, however, his close friend is killed and he sees the Israeli soldier show compassion, he starts questioning his ideals. That is certainly a bit of an understatement as he almost makes a 180 and decides to flee with the Israeli. This was one of the moments I couldn't fully understand. Another was when the Israeli soldier is hurt by a bullet and looks almost like he's about to die, the little boy out of nowhere performs a difficult surgery and only hours later the Israeli soldier is physically great again although he looked earlier like he'll at least need a week of rest in a hospital. There's certainly flaws in the script here and there and you could probably still find some more, but as a whole it's nonetheless, especially since the exquisite acting an interesting movie with historic significance and occasionally also a couple moments that make you smile, mostly in the interaction between the boy and the man. An obvious attempt at humor was the greedy taxi driver who enjoys listening to Bee Gees. They clearly tried with him some comic relief from the heavy material, but I didn't really like him at all and he also didn't make me laugh. Of course, there's also very shocking stuff, like that scene where the woman is shot while lying on the ground. You could certainly argue that it had no relevance to the story whatsoever, but was just there for shock value. Or you could argue that these things really happen and happen randomly which justifies their inclusion. I personally was moved a lot by it and it was the only time my eyes got kinda wet, especially as this may also have been the fate of the little boy's mother and all he still has from her is that photo.

In contrast to the taxi driver, there were, however, supporting players I liked. They all didn't have too much screen time as probably 90% of the film were the soldier and the little boy, but I enjoyed the boy's grandpa in the few scenes he had even if he didn't talk. He had a very warm presence. And so did the female UN worker played by Alice Taglioni. All in all, the film is certainly worth a watch if you can take it for what it is. Don't expect any great solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict or any huge impact on the peace process only because it's two people from the opposite sites bonding. Take it for an entertaining slightly under two hours with some quality moments in terms of drama, humor and really just two people making a connection and you may like it. After all, terrorism-related road movies are a bit of a rarity.

Zaytoun is one of those gems of a movie no one I know has watched. I first caught it about six years ago when I discovered Stephen Dorff, The American actor who plays captured Israeli pilot Yoni. I have since watched every one of Dorff's movies. I have also consumed a good deal of "conflict" films involving Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. I watched Zaytoun for the second time today as the current conflict between Hamas and Israel rages on in real life. Oddly, Zaytoun offered "a place" for contemplation.

Zaytoun is a movie with heart. A study in what motivates various factions in both their aggression and pacifism. It is also about the mutuality of need. Bless Fahed, the young Palestinian "terrorist" who is driven in his commitment to finding his family's ancestral home. He set out to honor his family by planting there an olive tree in their memory. Along the way, Fahed and Yoni made peace with eachother -saw life through the eye's of the other. Yoni ceased to speak of Palestine as though it didn't exist while Fahed demonstrated a certain admiration for Israeli ingenuity. Fahed and Yoni lived world's apart and yet were neighbors. Separated by thin, contrived borders. The gap between this unlikely pair was bridged as Yoni and Fahed navigated the impossible to reach their respective destinations.

Suspending disbelief, particularly in the last 10 minutes of the movie, I wanted badly to sit with the Fahed and Yoni under the stars that final night together. It seemed to me that in the heart of Zaytoun, all things were possible.