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

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i drama directed by

Uri Barbash Uri Barbash ( Hebrew: אורי ברבש; born 24 December 1946) is an Israeli film director. He directed the film "Beyond the Walls" (1984 film) written by his brother Benny Barbash and Eran Preis. the film was nominated for the Academy Award f ...

. 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. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be th ...

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

) 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. Shortly a ...

) who was a former

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; 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 stu ...

student and became a fervent

Labor Zionist Labor Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת סוֹצְיָאלִיסְטִית, ) or socialist Zionism ( he, תְּנוּעָת הָעַבוֹדָה, label=none, translit=Tnuʽat haʽavoda) refers to the left-wing, socialist variation of Zionism. ...

after the murder of his family in a

pogrom 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 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...

, arrive in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

and attempt to establish a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

in the

Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Gali ...

. 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

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

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 (born 8 April 1956) is a French actress. Biography After she registered in a model agency, Just Jaeckin liked her photo, and she got a part in the film ''Emmanuelle'' starring Sylvia Kristel, in which she played a lollipop-suc ...

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