The Road to Where

Looking at Michal Bat-Adam over the years, you'd think she had stopped time. But she's in her seventies now, and she's brought us a movie about the big questions. How is it that the past is dead, and in a way we're dead along with it, while at the same time the past seems like only yesterday? What is the purpose of all that? Is it the pursuit of some transcendent love, a love that hides itself as we approach?

The framework for Bat-Adam's reflections is a multi-generational story set in Jaffa, made of physically beautiful images, and-- not surprisingly in a Bat-Adam movie-- difficult to piece together. I wouldn't mind seeing the movie another one or two times just to focus on which character is who and how the characters are connected with one another. Not only does Bat-Adam disdain spoon-feeding the exposition to the audience, but in this movie she breaks another convention and does not make sure that all the important female characters draw our attention by looking beautiful.

If you're in it just for the experience, though, the confusion doesn't matter. It's like a lovely song with lyrics that half the time you can't quite catch. I hope Michal Bat-Adam never retires, but if she does retire tomorrow, she'll be going out at her best.