How affected you are by the closing scenes of "Zaytoun" may depend on your pre-existing knowledge of the Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli incursion in the country. Nothing’s spelled out in "Zaytoun" other than pointing out the date and location -- Beirut, 1982 -- but that would place the events depicted in the film shortly before the Sabra and Shatila massacre so brutally recalled in 2008’s “Waltz With Bashir.” It’s not something that directly impacts upon the story told on screen, but that the film assumes knowledge of will fundamentally affect the emotional impact its final act carries for different viewers. Eran Riklis’ film begins with the focus on 12-year-old Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) – a Palestinian boy living in a Beirut refugee camp. His contempt for Israel is intensified after his father is killed in an air attack (realized with extremely dated special effects), and so when an...
- 9/20/2013
- by Joe Cunningham
- The Playlist
For anyone itching to see Stephen Dorff portray an Israeli Pow, your opportunity has finally arrived. Zaytoun follows Dorff's Yoni, an Israeli pilot imprisoned by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (Plo) in 1982 Beirut. In captivity he befriends Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), a fast-talking 12-year-old refugee and one of the Plo's newly recruited child soldiers. After his father is killed, Fahed frees Yoni in the hopes of a mutually beneficial trip to the Israeli border, Yoni seeking homeland safety and Fahed an unmapped family home to plant one of his father's trees. Alternating abruptly between road-trip comedy and war-through-a-child's-eyes melodrama, the film's tonal inconsistency prevents the story from gelling; Dorff's awful accent may also have something to do with it. Th...
- 9/18/2013
- Village Voice
Title: Zaytoun Strand Releasing Director: Eran Riklis Screenwriter: Jader Rizq Cast: Stephen Dorff, Abdallah El Akal, Alice Taglioni, Loai Nofi, Ali Suliman, Ashraf Barhom Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 9/3/13 Opens: September 20, 2013 The family that pees together, stays together, or at least that’s what the two lead persons in Eran Riklis’s “Zaytoun” have demonstrated. Though the family in this case is just two people and only distant cousins, when they simultaneously water the dry landscape in the sticks of Lebanon, their bonding is assured. The film features a remarkable performance from the fifteen-year-old Abdalla El Akal as Fahed a twelve-year-old Palestinian refugee in an unhappy camp in Lebanon. [ Read More ]
The post Zaytoun Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Zaytoun Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 9/5/2013
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
After premiering at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, Eran Riklis‘ Zaytoun is finally making its way to U.S. theaters this fall. The film centers on an Israeli fighter pilot played by Stephen Dorff (Somewhere, those weirdly confrontational e-cigarette commercials), whose plane is shot down in the midst of the 1982 Lebanese Civil War. He strikes a deal with Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), a young Palestinian boy living in a refugee camp, to get him back home in exchange for helping him break free. Dorff’s kind of broken accent aside, the trailer shows a film with all the potential to be a great “buddy” adventure. Though clearly these two enemies aren’t going to trust each other for at least half of the road trip, they’ll surely form a tentative bond that evolves into an unlikely friendship when they realize that they’re not so different after all. Think of all the lessons they’ll learn...
- 8/16/2013
- by Samantha Wilson
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
While it seemed for a brief moment that the career of Stephen Dorff might be in for a mid-period ascension thanks to his turn in Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere," that didn't quite happen. As we documented in our feature 10 Actors Hollywood Tried And Failed To Make Happen, Dorff has pretty much gone back to doing a mix of movies you've never heard of, the occasional blockbuster and...well, "Zaytoun." And after making the requisite festival stops last year, it's coming to theaters and a new trailer has arrived. Directed by Eran Riklis, and set against the backdrop of the 1982 Lebanese Civil War, the film finds Dorff playing an Israeli pilot (with dodgy accent and everything), whose plane is shot down. He then makes a deal with 12-year-old Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) –a Palestinian boy living in a Beirut refugee camp—to take him back to his ancestral home in exchange for helping him escape.
- 8/15/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
★★★☆☆ Zaytoun (2012), the latest film from Lemon Tree (2008) director Eran Riklis, explores the theme of humanity in war-torn Beirut, circa 1982. Young Palestinian refugee Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) is left orphaned following the death of his father during an Israeli air attack. His days are spent in military training and dodging deadly bullets with his friends. During one training session, Fahed mimics shooting down a plane. At that very moment, the fighter pilot ejects himself as plane bursts into flames and crashes. Taken hostage by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation is the pilot, Yoni (Dorff), who is thrown into captivity.
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- 4/15/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
More touching than overwhelming, Zaytoun is a well-meaning drama about the developing friendship of a 12-year-old Palestinian orphan, Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), and an Israeli fighter pilot, Yoni (Stephen Dorff), who is shot down on a mission over Lebanon in 1982. Fahed's ambition is to visit for the first time his family's long-deserted farm in Israel and plant an olive tree nurtured by his late father. To achieve this he overcomes his hatred of Israelis and frees Yoni, a Plo prisoner facing likely torture and death, and helps him cross the border. It's a fraught, somewhat unlikely journey, less exciting and complex than it might have been, followed by a rather laboured, uneventful sojourn in Israel. The most engaging aspect is the daily routine of Fahed's life as he fights to survive in battered Beirut.
Zaytoun is the work of Eran Riklis, the Israeli director who made the excellent Lemon Tree,...
Zaytoun is the work of Eran Riklis, the Israeli director who made the excellent Lemon Tree,...
- 12/30/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Safety Not Guaranteed | Jack Reacher | Midnight's Children | Grabbers | Zaytoun | Parental Guidance
Safety Not Guaranteed (15) (Colin Trevorrow, 2012, Us) Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere. 86 mins
A man puts an ad in the local paper seeking a companion for his time-travel mission. Is this a prelude to a sci-fi adventure or an inventive lonelyhearts ad? We're strung along as to whether or not this guy's genuine for so long, there's room to smuggle in a relaxed indie romcom in the interim – Plaza is great company as she forges a connection with the paranoid inventor (Duplass). The sci-fi element isn't quite a red herring, but by the time it flowers, we've already learned plenty about living in the past.
Jack Reacher (12A) (Christopher McQuarrie, 2012, Us) Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins. 130 mins
After the atrocity of Rock Of Ages, Cruise is back in his comfort zone as Lee Child's lone-wolf military detective,...
Safety Not Guaranteed (15) (Colin Trevorrow, 2012, Us) Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere. 86 mins
A man puts an ad in the local paper seeking a companion for his time-travel mission. Is this a prelude to a sci-fi adventure or an inventive lonelyhearts ad? We're strung along as to whether or not this guy's genuine for so long, there's room to smuggle in a relaxed indie romcom in the interim – Plaza is great company as she forges a connection with the paranoid inventor (Duplass). The sci-fi element isn't quite a red herring, but by the time it flowers, we've already learned plenty about living in the past.
Jack Reacher (12A) (Christopher McQuarrie, 2012, Us) Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins. 130 mins
After the atrocity of Rock Of Ages, Cruise is back in his comfort zone as Lee Child's lone-wolf military detective,...
- 12/29/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The premise of this drama about a deal a Palestinian boy cuts with an Israeli pilot may be sweet, but it doesn't convince
This film is incidentally not an adaptation of Dave Eggers's reportage study Zeitoun (2009), about the innocent Syrian-American Abdulrahman Zeitoun, notoriously arrested on suspicions of terrorism during Hurricane Katrina, while trying to rescue people in his canoe. It's a well-intentioned but contrived and unconvincing film, from the Israeli director Eran Riklis; it is set in Beirut, 1982, in the era of the Sabra and Shatila massacres. A young Palestinian boy, Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), finds himself guarding an Israeli air force pilot, Yoni (Stephen Dorff), whose plane has crashed; the intention is to turn him over to the Plo. Fahed is overwhelmed with a passionate need to see his Palestinian homeland just once, and plant on this soil his father's tiny and carefully tended olive tree (the film's...
This film is incidentally not an adaptation of Dave Eggers's reportage study Zeitoun (2009), about the innocent Syrian-American Abdulrahman Zeitoun, notoriously arrested on suspicions of terrorism during Hurricane Katrina, while trying to rescue people in his canoe. It's a well-intentioned but contrived and unconvincing film, from the Israeli director Eran Riklis; it is set in Beirut, 1982, in the era of the Sabra and Shatila massacres. A young Palestinian boy, Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), finds himself guarding an Israeli air force pilot, Yoni (Stephen Dorff), whose plane has crashed; the intention is to turn him over to the Plo. Fahed is overwhelmed with a passionate need to see his Palestinian homeland just once, and plant on this soil his father's tiny and carefully tended olive tree (the film's...
- 12/28/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
★★☆☆☆ Stephen Dorff stars - somewhat bizarrely - as an Israeli fighter pilot who through an unfortunate mechanical malfunction finds himself stranded in Beirut in the latest film from Lemon Tree (2008) director Eran Riklis. A Middle Eastern road movie-cum-buddy flick, Zaytoun (2012) uses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the catalyst for a coming together of cultures with all the subtlety of an air raid. Taken hostage by a group of radical Palestinian insurgents in 1980s Beirut, Yoni (Dorff) builds an unconventional bond with Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) a precocious war orphan described by his friends as the Palestinian 'Zico' due to his footballing skills.
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- 12/26/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Out on Boxing Day and produced by Gareth 'King's Speech' Unwin, Zaytoun is a Christmas truce movie that promises to bring peace, if not to all mankind, then at least to those people who go to see it. It stars Stephen Dorff as an Israeli fighter pilot who forms a tentative bond with his captor, a young Palestinian boy played by Abdallah El Akal. Watch the film's new trailer below. brightcove.createExperiences(); Dorff's character, Yoni, is an F-16 pilot downed over Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War. He's captured by Palestinian militia but helped to escape by 12 year-old Fahed. The pair go on the run with the intention of smuggling Yoni back across the border. Zaytoun is directed by Eran Riklis, an alum of the Beaconsfield National Film School and ex-Israeli Defence Force veteran who served in the Yom Kippur War. Expect plenty of moments of war-torn vérité - that minefield...
- 12/19/2012
- EmpireOnline
How affected you are by the closing scenes of "Zaytoun" may depend on your pre-existing knowledge of the Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli incursion in the country. Nothing’s spelled out in "Zaytoun" other than pointing out the date and location -- Beirut, 1982 -- but that would place the events depicted in the film shortly before the Sabra and Shatila massacre so brutally recalled in 2008’s “Waltz With Bashir.” It’s not something that directly impacts upon the story told on screen, but that the film assumes knowledge of will fundamentally affect the emotional impact its final act carries for different viewers. Eran Riklis’ film begins with the focus on 12-year-old Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) – a Palestinian boy living in a Beirut refugee camp. His contempt for Israel is intensified after his father is killed in an air attack (realized with extremely dated special effects), and so when an Israeli fighter pilot (Stephen.
- 10/17/2012
- by Joe Cunningham
- The Playlist
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis’ (The Human Resources Manager) latest feature, Zaytoun, captures our attention right from its opening shots, undeniably striking from a visual perspective, with some scintillating, lengthy takes conveying the desolate, war-torn Beirut. This is a film primarily pre-occupied with families both present and past – particularly that of a precocious young refugee, Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), longing to return to his homestead – yet Riklis is also unafraid to brazenly depict the savagery leading up to Israel’s eventual invasion of Lebanon.
Fahed uneasily bonds with Yoni (Stephen Dorff), an Israeli fighter pilot who crash-lands in Beirut and is captured by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, to which Fahed tacitly belongs. While it’s unquestionably nice to see Dorff in something that’s not straight-to-video for the first time in a while, and he certainly does well enough as one half of the central odd couple,...
Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis’ (The Human Resources Manager) latest feature, Zaytoun, captures our attention right from its opening shots, undeniably striking from a visual perspective, with some scintillating, lengthy takes conveying the desolate, war-torn Beirut. This is a film primarily pre-occupied with families both present and past – particularly that of a precocious young refugee, Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), longing to return to his homestead – yet Riklis is also unafraid to brazenly depict the savagery leading up to Israel’s eventual invasion of Lebanon.
Fahed uneasily bonds with Yoni (Stephen Dorff), an Israeli fighter pilot who crash-lands in Beirut and is captured by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, to which Fahed tacitly belongs. While it’s unquestionably nice to see Dorff in something that’s not straight-to-video for the first time in a while, and he certainly does well enough as one half of the central odd couple,...
- 10/14/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
The first week of press previews for the 56th London Film Festival came to a close with the first sampling of the Documentary competition via the powerful and disturbing West of Memphis. This was followed up with an unexpected participant in the “Love” strand, Ursula Meier’s Sister, which certainly presents a different notion of the concept. Rounding out the day’s (and the week’s) offerings was Zaytoun, a “Debate” film dealing with the ever-present Israel-Palestine conflict. A light-hearted day of laughs this most definitely was not, but the three films did provide much to discuss – London Film Fan
West of Memphis
Director Amy Berg condenses nearly 20 years of legal injustice and inept policing into this two-and-a-half hour piece that thoroughly covers the graphic murders of three young boys in Arkansas in 1993. The three suspects, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are quickly profiled as the film illustrates...
West of Memphis
Director Amy Berg condenses nearly 20 years of legal injustice and inept policing into this two-and-a-half hour piece that thoroughly covers the graphic murders of three young boys in Arkansas in 1993. The three suspects, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are quickly profiled as the film illustrates...
- 10/10/2012
- by Guest
- Nerdly
Zaytoun
Directed by Eran Riklis
Written by Nader Rizq
Starring Stephen Dorff, Alice Taglioni, Ashraf Barhom, Abdallah El Akal
If you like me you sometimes despair of the power of cinema, or how a single inept, obviously inciteful piece of so called ‘film’ is able to inflame a portion of the world to murderous violence then the new Israeli / Palestinian drama Zaytoun might just be the perfect antidote to such depressing, reactionary and manufactered reactions. It is 1982, in the period immediately preceding the Lebanon / Israeli conflict, and Israeli fighter pilot Yoni (Dorff) parachutes out of his crashing plane into the hands of Palestinian rebels in Beirut. The Plo have alighted to the country in order to set up up a more stable headquarters, with many Palestinian refugees fleeing to the country, mostly unwelcome and living in squalid camps. The insurgants assign the task of safeguarding their immensely precious hostage to a group of children,...
Directed by Eran Riklis
Written by Nader Rizq
Starring Stephen Dorff, Alice Taglioni, Ashraf Barhom, Abdallah El Akal
If you like me you sometimes despair of the power of cinema, or how a single inept, obviously inciteful piece of so called ‘film’ is able to inflame a portion of the world to murderous violence then the new Israeli / Palestinian drama Zaytoun might just be the perfect antidote to such depressing, reactionary and manufactered reactions. It is 1982, in the period immediately preceding the Lebanon / Israeli conflict, and Israeli fighter pilot Yoni (Dorff) parachutes out of his crashing plane into the hands of Palestinian rebels in Beirut. The Plo have alighted to the country in order to set up up a more stable headquarters, with many Palestinian refugees fleeing to the country, mostly unwelcome and living in squalid camps. The insurgants assign the task of safeguarding their immensely precious hostage to a group of children,...
- 10/4/2012
- by John
- SoundOnSight
This period adventure story revisits the days of the Lebanese Civil War and the early stages of the ill-fated Israeli incursion into Lebanon. It follows young Fahed (Abdallah El Akal) as he witnesses the death of his father in an attack on a Palestinian refugee camp and his escape from Beirut with an unlikely companion, an Israeli pilot, Yoni (Stephen Dorff), whose plane is shot down. "Zaytoun," by Eran Riklis ("The Syrian Bride," "Lemon Tree") is a road movie that heads toward Israel and toward the village there that Fahed’s family was forced to leave, as the two meet up with everything but peace along the way. The bond between Israeli pilot and angry Palestinian boy careens through the film with a rough-edged sentimentality. The suggestion is that all enemies can get along once they get to know each other, even in the most desperate of circumstances. Dream away.
- 9/10/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
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