Alila (2003)

41% of critics liked it
(17 reviews)
38% of users liked it
(712 ratings)

Directed by Amos Gitai, Alila is based on Yehoshua Kenaz's novel Returning Lost Love and chronicles the trials and tribulations of every day life in Tel Aviv. Most of the film revolves around an apartment block on the working-class borders of Tel Aviv, where the trysts of residents Hezi (Amos Lavie)… More Directed by Amos Gitai, Alila is based on Yehoshua Kenaz's novel Returning Lost Love and chronicles the trials and tribulations of every day life in Tel Aviv. Most of the film revolves around an apartment block on the working-class borders of Tel Aviv, where the trysts of residents Hezi (Amos Lavie) and Gabi (Yael Abecassis) attract their neighbors' attention, as does the unauthorized construction of an additional wing to the building. A neighboring family patriarch, meanwhile, is dealing with legal troubles (he hired illegal Chinese construction workers), the AWOL status of his son, and his wife's affair with a younger man. A Holocaust survivor (Yosef Carmon) and his Filipino housekeeper (Lyn Shiao Zamir) further illustrate the conflict between Jews, Jews of different extractions, and Arabs in the community. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 1 min.
Directed By: Amos Gitai
Written By: Amos Gitai, Marie-Josee Sanselme, Marie-Jose Sanselme
Genres: Documentary, Drama, Art House & International

In Theaters: Feb 27, 2004 Limited
On DVD: Nov 9, 2004
Studio: Kino International

Critic Reviews

Peter Howell, Toronto Star
It's a bit of a mess.
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
It's too acerbic to be funny and too detached to be really moving.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
The story and even the characters turn out to be less interesting than the overview it gives us of the way Israelis live now, its portrait of a dislocated society where despair rumbles beneath the surface of everyday life.
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
None of the characters or situations truly manages to hold our attention, though there are some arresting moments.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Gitai ... records the comings and goings with a keen eye.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Amos Gitai's acidly comic study of life in a flimsy Tel Aviv apartment complex is a sour urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Gitai delivers an amazing film every bit as satisfying as his masterpiece Kippur (2001).
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Suggesting that the strain of the Arab conflict has gotten to the Israelis and that peace might only be a pipe dream.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...Gitai has populated the story with one unlikable character after another, making it impossible for the viewer to connect with anything on screen.
Bruce Kirkland, Jam! Movies
For all its flaws, Alila is an interesting social issue film.
Sheri Linden, Boxoffice Magazine
For non-Israeli audiences, Alila is an alternately illuminating and confounding glimpse into seldom-seen aspects of the country.
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
Though absorbing enough, Alila must be counted a noble failure, if only because its efforts to follow the screwed-up lives of 12 hapless souls in a seedy Tel Aviv apartment building finally add up more to mere mimicry than commentary.
Ed Gonzalez, City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Gitaï's portrait of self-destructive lives is certainly honest, but his direction is suffocating.
Lewis Beale, Film Journal International
Extremely well-acted and generally absorbing.
, E! Online
Another piece of essential viewing for outsiders trying to understand life in the Middle East.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
An interesting, if not entirely successful, adaptation of an excellent book.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

[font=Century Gothic][color=royalblue]"Alila" is an Israeli movie set in an apartment building. It features various denizens while focusing on a divorced builder and his son who has gone AWOL from the army and a very anonymous affair. Director Amos Gitai uses exquisite… More
[font=Century Gothic][color=royalblue]"Alila" is an Israeli movie set in an apartment building. It features various denizens while focusing on a divorced builder and his son who has gone AWOL from the army and a very anonymous affair. Director Amos Gitai uses exquisite tracking shots and jump cuts to tell his story but Michael Haneke fell flat on his face doing pretty much the same thing with "Code Unknown" in 2001. "Alila" is a slight improvement.(Both "Alila" and "Code Unknown" make mention of illegal immigration.) What this technique allows for is glimpses into the lives of its characters but because that is all we get, there is never a sense that we ever get know any of them, and several remain complete mysteries. There is something here about how neighbors interact with each other but not much. [/color][/font]

Cast

Yaël Abecassis
as Gabi
Uri Ran Klauzner
as Ezra
Hanna Laslo
as Mali

Ronit Elkabetz
as Ronit
Amos Lavie
as Hezi
Lupo Berkowitch
as Aviram

See full cast

Alila (2003)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

Cast