| | |  | ISRAEL & JEWS | Home » » Close to Home | | | | | | | Description: | | (Drama) Two young, different female soldiers patrol the anxious streets of Jerusalem, questioning Palestinians and looking for suicide bombers. The rebellious one finds the army demeaning; the controlled one is obedient. Under intense pressure, against a backdrop of any-minute-now terrorist attacks, a friendship takes hold and roles reverse. | | | Features: | |
• Inia divided city, friendship isitheir last line of defense. In the nation of Israel, military service is compulsory for all citizens. Now an award-winning drama offers an in-depth look at young women's lives in the service. Dutiful Mirit (Naama Schender) is assigned to a street patrol with the rebellious Smadar (Smadar Sayar). Plunged into the simmering tensions of Jerusalem, they find the
| | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Smadar Sayar, Naama Schendar, Danny Geva, Katia Zinbris, Ami Weinberg | | Director:
| Dalia Hager | | Format:
| Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language:
| Hebrew | | Subtitle:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Ifc | | Run Time:
| 98 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| June 19, 2007 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 8 reviews |
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| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 8 customer reviews )
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18 of 19 found the following review helpful:
living with terrorismAug 23, 2007
By Roland E. Zwick
Imagine living in a world where the bus you are riding on could, at any given moment, detonate into a fiery deathtrap in a deliberate act of mass murder, or the café you are sitting at be rocked to its very foundations by a well-placed briefcase filled with explosives. How would living in so perpetual a state of high alert affect the things you did, the places you went to, the people you saw? And how would such an environment determine the structure of the society itself, the laws it prescribed and the way in which it treated its people? And could terrorism itself become such a commonplace and familiar fact of everyday life that even it might lose the ability to shock and horrify the very people closest to it?
Finding the means of successfully combating terrorism has, of course, become a life-or-death necessity for the people of Israel. One of their responses to the threat has been to instigate mandatory military service for all their young people. Another has been to subject Arabs to legal random searches - simply for being Arabs. In the Israeli film, "Close to Home," Smadar and Mirit are two young Army officers whose job it is to check the ID's of anyone in their assigned area who happens to look like a Palestinian. Possibly because they have grown up with terrorism as a regular part of their lives, these girls seem to have developed a strange immunity to its effects, for neither seems overly impressed with the seriousness of the job they are doing - although, of the two, Mirit is a little more concerned about what might happen to them were they found to be in any way derelict in their duties. Smadar and Mirit are not exactly natural buddies, but, over time, they develop a certain tenuous closeness that seems sure to blossom into a full-fledged friendship by the end of the story.
"Close to Home" is more of a naturalistic study of the day-to-day lives of these two women than it is a heavily plotted narrative. Most of the film is spent chronicling their interactions with their military superiors, the random people they are forced to interrogate, and, most importantly, each other. Smadar Sayar and Neama Shendar create believable, memorable characters who perform their task more out of a sense of duty than a fiery love of country. It's only when an explosion hits a little too close to home that they are, at least momentarily, shaken out of their lethargy. But even that doesn't last for long, as the girls begin to slack off at their jobs once again, with Smadar becoming an ever more potentially corrupting influence on the decidedly less rebellious Mirit.
If the filmmakers, Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hager, have a political point to make, it is well hidden beneath the deceptively casual surface of the girls' relationship. For this is, first and foremost, a story about Smadar and Neama, about two Israeli youngsters who, despite the extraordinary conditions under which they are forced to live, are basically interested in the same things that preoccupy young people the world over: moving away from home, pursuing romantic interests, deciding on hairstyles and fashions. If anything, the filmmakers seem to be saying that it really isn't possible for the human mind to exist in a state of constant readiness no matter how great the threat, that eventually the concerns of common everyday life will rise to the surface and crowd most everything else out. Bilu and Hager clearly acknowledge the reality of the terrorist threat, but they also know that a life ruled by fear is no life at all.
In a subtle but persuasive way, the movie also raises the extremely touchy question of just how far a nation should go in abrogating the civil liberties of any single group in exchange for increased safety. It is an issue Israel has been dealing with throughout its entire existence, and the moviemakers clearly acknowledge that there is no simple solution to that conundrum - a conundrum that has, over the years, become increasingly relevant beyond the limits of the Israeli border.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Life the way most of us don't know itAug 11, 2009
By Jaroslav Melgr
"jaroski"
The movie tells the story of two young female soldiers serving their mandatory military service by patrolling the streets of Jerusalem and checking ID cards of Arabs and Palestinians passing through. Mirit is shy and wants to do what is right. She partnered with Smadar who isn't pleased to be with Mirit, whom most other female soldiers in their unit perceive as a stiff. At first they don't get along at all and their issues reflect in their performance. As their commanding officers press them to do better Mirit and Smadar end up worming up to each other and start to work together. They still have their issues and differences, but their care for each other shows when a suicide bomber strikes nearby....
This movie is a bit slow however it's not intended to be an action movie. There are some scenes where either Smadar or Mirit seem to behave somewhat irrationally. But that really seems to be the point of the movie as this is a story about life in a world of constant tension and uncertainty. And one way to cope with it is to do something that may seem irrational. This is something most of us don't really know anything about nor can we quite fully comprehend what it's like. One thing is for sure, watching this movie will make you appreciate what you have.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Ambitious, yet flawedMar 10, 2010
By JR Mann
"hochunkguy"
Close to Home (Karov La Bayit) ends with an, assumedly, Arab man being pummeled to death by a crowd, over the objections of the two protagonists. We don't see the beating, as the filmmakers choose to not portray violence on screen. (An earlier bombing occurs off screen and we just see its relatively benign after effects.)
While Close to Home is about two women doing their obligatory duty in the Israeli Defense Force, the filmmakers appear to have two agendas, one a simple coming of age theme and the second, women caught up in a ridiculously male-oriented organization.
Viewers of any gender will alternately identify and reject both lead characters and their peculairities. In that, is the strength of the movie as the filmmakers aren't afraid of making both leads human, even if it borders on stereotypes (the timid rule-follower and the brash rule-breaker.)
For exposure to a world and country that is seldom featured in movies, Close to Home is worth a look.
Watchable, but Nothing SpecialNov 16, 2011
By SanDiegoJesse
I thought this would be an interesting premise, but the plot didn't seem to go anywhere. It was an interesting peak into the life of women in the Israeli army, however.
 A sleeper but a great movieAug 21, 2011
By D. Clark
"PlainOldDavid"
It's a great movie about the friendship between 2 Israeli women doing their compulsory military service. At first they start out hating each other because one is kind of a bad girl who hates taking orders and the other is prudish and kind of shy. But by the end of the movie they end up becoming close friends by going through a few hardships together. If you take the time to get into it, it's a great movie. It also shows you don't have to have a big budget or fantastic special effects to produce a good movie. It really is a great movie.
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