MOVIE REVIEW : UNDEVELOPED THEMES IN ‘HAMSIN’

Director Daniel Wachsmann and his writers place the ancient Arab-Israeli conflict on a painfully personal level in their rigorous, somber yet unsatisfying “Hamsin,” the third offering in the series of new-wave Israeli films at the Monica 4-Plex.

Other Israeli pictures have been critical of Israeli treatment of Arabs, but “Hamsin” (“Eastern Wind”) is perhaps the most daring in this respect. The time is 1981, the setting Galilee (which could pass for California’s Central Valley), where an Israeli confiscation of Arab lands looms imminent. A young Israeli farmer (Shlomo Tarshish), eager to acquire grazing land for cattle, wants to buy what he needs from an elderly Arab, offering to share the profits with him and at the same time protect the old man’s property. The Arab’s son (Yasin Shawaf) works for Tarshish, and the two have grown up together like brothers.

“Hamsin” reveals with tragic credibility the increasing difficulty of maintaining a simple, decent brotherhood between Arab and Jew amid escalating tensions between the two cultures. Complicating matters drastically for Tarshish is his sister (Hemda Levy), who returns from Jerusalem and commits the ultimate taboo of beginning an affair with the handsome Shawaf. This Romeo and Juliet subplot also presents a serious problem for the film in that it makes us realize we don’t begin to know enough about the couple or Tarshish.

Why are the lovers so reckless, not even bothering to draw the blinds? What did Levy expect to find--clearly the romance with Shawaf is unexpected--so interesting at home when she had found life in Jerusalem such a bore? What’s more, when Tarshish does find out about their romance, why is his reaction so violent? Is he enraged because at heart he’s prejudiced? Is it a nobody-messes-around-with-my-sister macho response? Or is it a combination of both?

Possibly “Hamsin” suffers from inadequate subtitling, but it seems undeveloped and therefore not as involving as it might be. It comes across as a minor film on a major theme by a fledgling film maker who, because of his courage and discipline, leaves you looking forward to his next film rather than enjoying the one at hand.

After “Hamsin” (Times-rated: Mature for adult themes and situations) completes a one-week run at the Monica, it will move for another week to the Town & Country.