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Jewish Themed Documentary on Palestine Under British Rule
Return to Zion (Shivat Zion) is a documentary included on the DVD set Kafka Goes to the Movies. The film is a compilation of newsreel footage shot in Palestine during British rule and made primarily for Jewish audiences, partially as a way of drumming up financial support. The viewer is shown a prison fortress, an anthropological dig, the arrival of the new High Commissioner to Palestine Herbert Samuel, much toiling by the people, and, at the end, a visit from future Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The disk comes with a commentary track by Stewart Tryster, who provides some much needed context. Presumably, the attended audience (Jewish cinemagoers of the early 1920's) had some familiarity with the events and people on display. Twenty-first century audiences may have a harder time (I did). In addition to understanding the circumstances on screen, modern viewers might also tire of the repetitious nature of some of the footage (there is a long scene of people shaking hands in a doorway).
In spite of that, the film held my interest up until about the end of its second section (the film is divided into three sections). I also found the experience a little moving. The film is a hundred years old; everyone in it is deceased (even that charming girl in one of the parades who mugs for the camera). In that sense, Return to Zion has some of the appeal of the travel films the Lumiere brothers shot.
Return to Zion will be of more interest to students of Jewish history than film historians. Although I don't have much interest in the former, I must confess that I did not mind watching this film.
The disk comes with a commentary track by Stewart Tryster, who provides some much needed context. Presumably, the attended audience (Jewish cinemagoers of the early 1920's) had some familiarity with the events and people on display. Twenty-first century audiences may have a harder time (I did). In addition to understanding the circumstances on screen, modern viewers might also tire of the repetitious nature of some of the footage (there is a long scene of people shaking hands in a doorway).
In spite of that, the film held my interest up until about the end of its second section (the film is divided into three sections). I also found the experience a little moving. The film is a hundred years old; everyone in it is deceased (even that charming girl in one of the parades who mugs for the camera). In that sense, Return to Zion has some of the appeal of the travel films the Lumiere brothers shot.
Return to Zion will be of more interest to students of Jewish history than film historians. Although I don't have much interest in the former, I must confess that I did not mind watching this film.
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- Shivat Zion
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