A Tale of Love and Darkness
Genre: Drama
Director: Alex Conn
Writer: Alex Conn
Based on the book by Amos Oz
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jude Hill, F. Murray Abraham, Fred Melamed, Louis Chaplin Moss
Plot: The film opens with some text about Mandatory Palestine: In 1923 Mandatory Palestine was established. Through that time there were clashes between the Arabs and the Jews. There was a Zionist fervor especially during and after World War 2 to start an independent Israel.
The film starts then with Fania Klausner (Carey Mulligan) birthing their first child in Mandatory Palestine in 1939. She screams in pain as he delivers. Blood is all over the place. Yehuda (Michael Stuhlbarg) is there to comfort her. The umbilical cord is cut. They decide to name their child Amos.
The film cuts to 7 years later.
Fania and Yehuda are studying history together as they are raising Amos (Louis Chaplin Moss). When they get home they see young Amos grabbing a book and they are impressed.
After dinner Fania and Yehuda are teaching their son how to read Hebrew. Amos is struggling but getting it slowly.
Amos goes to his room while his parents are discussing the potential beginning of Israel. Yehuda is excited about the prospect as Amos will be able to finally fully express his Jewish identity but Fania who isn’t necessarily opposed to the Jewish state says what about our Arab friends. Yehuda says he’s sure there’s going to be a deal to help the Arabs.
Fania goes to Amos’ room to check on him as he is about to sleep. Amos asks what Israel is. Fania says that’s an adult conversation that they will have when he’s older. Amos asks again and Fania references the Torah and the references to Jerusalem and how Jerusalem in an independent Israel is supposed to be a paradise for Jews everywhere. Where Jews after centuries of oppression and the Holocaust can live happily and the Arabs will have a state of their own.
We see shots of an imaginary Jerusalem in Independent Israel and Fania is narrating talking about how wonderful it will be for Amos’ future and for the future of the Jewish people.
In this utopia Amos will be free and will embrace being Jewish proudly.
There is a dinner party with many of Yehuda and Fania inviting many of their dinner guests. They are all pleased with the progress to an independent Israel. A man named Schlomo (Fred Melamed) discusses the ruthless antisemitism that he faced in Eastern Europe and how he, like many Jews came to Mandatory Palestine for hope to come to the promised land that was promised to the Jews and now there’s a chance that independent Israel will be a thing. Fania asks Amos to come and say hi to their guests. A shy Amos says hi. Fania discusses how Schlomo was telling her earlier about his time working on a kibbutz. Schlomo says it was the best time of my life. It really helped me define who I wanted to be and from a boy to a man. Fania says cheers to that and Amos goes back to bed.
On November 20th 1947 Amos and his family as well as other people from the neighborhood gather around the radio to hear about the beginnings of Israel. We see a parade of Israeli flags and people celebrating.
Those visions of a beautiful utopian Israel with everyone living in harmony reappear in the film. Amos goes to sleep with a smile on his face.
Amos is getting up the next day and Fania is having a panic attack. Amos’ dad is trying to comfort her. She is having a panic attack and she is saying incomprehensible things.
The next day she is picking up a prescription for anti anxiety medication and sleeping pills. Fania says that she needs them as she’s been having panic attacks and is unable to sleep. She is given Phenobarbital and Chloral Hydrate.
Amos asks Fania why she had the panic attack last night and Fania just says mommy was very sick and now these pills are going to make mommy better. Amos accepts the explanation and goes back to reading.
Civil war breaks out between the Arabs and the Jews and Yehuda enlists in the army to fight in the war. Both Amos and Fania beg Yehuda to stay and not fight but Yehuda says that he is fighting the same antisemitism that killed our family members.
Fania explains to him since she says he’s old enough now. The Arabs and the Jews are at war. Amos asks why they hate each other as we have Arab friends. Fania explains the Jews and the Arabs are really victims of the same abusive father which is Europe who has harmed both the Muslims and the Jews. Instead of uniting the Arabs and the Jews see their father in the other.
The next day Fania is crying her eyes out. She yells and screams that Schlomo is dead she is screaming and crying in grief and pain
Fania attends a Zionist meeting and at the Zionist meeting they have the speaker Omri Levi (F. Murray Abraham). Omri Levi loudly talks about how they have been nice to the Arabs for far too long. This is the promised land to the Jews and we’ve been tolerant of them.
Fania comes home angry. Fania says we’re in grave danger and it’s the Arabs they are going to kill your father. Amos starts getting scared but also tries to calm his mother down.
The film cuts to four years later in 1951. Fania is screaming and crying. Yehuda who is home from war now and there is an Israeli flag flying outside their house.
Fania is in front of a mirror taking a bunch of antidepressants. We then cut to Amos (Jude Hill) who is 14 years old now and asking Yehuda why Fania is acting weird for the past few years. He explains that his mother has always had depression but due to things like the death of Schlomo.
Yehuda and Amos go upstairs to find the overdosed and dead body of Fania. Yehuda who knows CPR tries to revive her but fails and they no both cry.
When Yehuda and Amos are having dinner mainly silently except for Yehuda trying to make conversation with Amos.
Amos on the walk to school sees an Arab child screaming for help but the IDF soldier drags him away and apologizes for the Arab bothering you.
There is a funeral for Fania and Yehuda discusses in his speech Fania’s vision for an independent Israel and her vision of her beloved son Amos growing up there in a society where his Jewishness was something he could embrace unlike how she grew up. Yehuda discusses this as something Fania viewed as her dream and her dream is finally being realized.
Yehuda goes home and says it was wonderful to see so many people at this service including Omri. Amos is quiet and he tells the story of the young Arab boy who was begging for help and the IDF soldier arrested him. Yehuda says that that’s the security protocol we have to do. If the Arabs don’t like it then why did they slaughter Jews when all the Jews wanted was their own country. The country that is going to be your homeland.
We then cut to Amos having a flashback to when Fania suggested that he join a kibbutz when he’s older. Amos brings this up to Yehuda and Yehuda patently rejects the idea but says maybe when you’re older.
Amos goes to visit Kibbutz Hulda which is the nearby kibbutz and he says that he is interested in joining. The representative says they are always interested in new workers. Amos says he’s interested and he will be back.
Amos writes a letter and tells Yehuda in the letter he’s in a better place but does not reveal fully where he will go to. Amos leaves for the kibbutz as we cut back and forth to Omri Levi having an ultranationalist Zionist speech about how Israel is the land of the Jews not the Arabs before a flag of Israel takes over the screen.
.jpg)
.jpg)
