Surfer dude Lior is one of the subjects in "Unsettled"
(Credit: Resonance Pictures)
- Running time:
- 84 minutes
- Director:
- Adam Hootnick
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Overall User Rating:
-
(0 ratings)
Big question: Is this 2006 documentary still relevant several years later, while the violence continues?
Catch it: This is one for the time capsule, since writer-director Adam Hootnick's determined objectivity merely says, "Let's remember these events and then see what happens." It's a compelling, sympathetic and rarely seen take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, focusing not on what divides the two but on how one nation struggles with itself to determine the best way to keep-or, rather, perhaps one day achieve some semblance of peace.
Skip it: If you'd prefer soundtrack music a bit less obvious than Matisyahu. Though you can't help but wonder how the people on screen feel about the artist's less-than-traditional use of rap, rock and reggae to explore Jewish themes.
Bottom line: Though the film doesn't explain how it chose its subjects—ranging from a lifeguard in Gaza to an American-born soldier—or get us particularly close to any of them, "Unsettled" does put relatable human faces to a particularly difficult and controversial moment in Israel’s history. Its snapshot may only seem more profound the more outdated it becomes.
Bonus: At one point an 8-year-old girl living in Gaza interviews her 14-year-old sister on a camera phone and asks questions like, "Why are you mad at the soldier and not the Prime Minister?" If only all on-camera interviewers were this direct!
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