''Unsettled Land'' (, ''lit.'' ''The Dreamers''; also known as ''Once We Were Dreamers'') is a 1987

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i drama directed by

Uri Barbash Uri Barbash ( Hebrew: אורי ברבש; born 24 December 1946) is an Israeli film director and television director, member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. and the Israeli Academy of Film and Television. His film '' Beyond t ...

. The plot follows a group of young Jewish individuals who leave Europe immediately after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the

pogroms A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century attacks on Jews i ...

that followed to fulfill a dream and start a new chapter in their lives and in the lives of their people. The group consists of individualists driven by faith, dreaming of a utopian society free from religious constraints and striving for complete equality. Upon arriving in the land of their ancestors, they discover that the land is not empty, and they must fight to survive, abandoning the rigid laws of their

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

. The film premiered in the International Competition at the

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. According to the FIAPF, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals and the second largest film festival in Asia behind the ...

and was selected to be shown at the Israel Film Festival in New York. It also won awards for Best Cinematography (

Amnon Salomon Amnon Salomon (; April 3, 1940 – October 23, 2011) was an Israeli film cinematographer. He was a recipient of the Ophir Award for cinematography. Biography Salomon was born in Tel Aviv in 1940 to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a Russian-Jewish ...

) and Best Art Direction (Eitan Levy) at the Israel Film Center.

Plot

In 1919, a group of idealistic Jewish pioneers from Europe, including Austrian doctor Anda (

Kelly McGillis Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American actress. She is known for her film roles such as Rachel Lapp in ''Witness'' (1985), for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations; Charlie in ''Top Gun'' (1986); ''Made in Heaven' ...

) and her Russian violinist lover Marcus (

John Shea John Victor Shea III ( ; born April 14, 1949) is an American actor, film producer, and stage director. His career began on Broadway where he starred in '' Yentl,'' subsequently winning his first major award, the 1975 Theatre World Award. Shortl ...

) who was a former

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

student and became a fervent

Labor Zionist Labor Zionism () or socialist Zionism () is the Left-wing politics, left-wing, socialism, socialist variant of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist ...

after the murder of his family in a

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

, arrive in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

and attempt to establish a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in the

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

. Their dream ends up shattered as they attempt to cope with the hardships of the land, sexual and ideological tensions within the group, and hostile confrontations with their Arab neighbours. Finally, the film dramatizes their disappointment as they must come to terms with the gaps between their

n vision and reality. As Miri Talmon has noted, the film "makes a clear intergenerational connection between the ‘pioneers’ and the shattering of the dream, which is the experience that the audience and the individual filmgoer faced at the end of the eighties.”Quoted in Eldad Kedem, "Kibbutz Films in Transition: From Morality to Ethics," in M. Talmon and Y. Peleg, eds., ''Israeli Cinema: Identities in Crisis'' (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), p. 328.

Cast

as Anda *

as Marcus *

Christine Boisson Christine Boisson (8 April 1956 – 21 October 2024) was a French actress. Biography Boisson was born in Salon-de-Provence on 8 April 1956; her mother was French and her father was from the West Indies. After she registered in a model agency, ...

as Sima *Arnon Zadok as Amnon * Robert Pollock as Yulek *Sinai Peter as Daniel *Neta Moran as Temma * Amos Lavi as Muhammed *Boris Rimmer as Avrum *Alan Bergreen as Natan *Martha Arden as Rosa *Rachel Amran as Maha *Avi Gouetta as Salim Assistant 2 *Yossi Ashdot as Shepard

Critical reception

Despite its rather large budget and Hollywood stars, the film did poorly at the box office and garnered poor reviews.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, unsettled_land, Unsettled Land 1987 films Israeli drama films Hebrew-language films Films about the kibbutz Films set in 1919 Films set in Palestine (region) Films set in Mandatory Palestine