St. Anthony Main, Wednesday, April 30, at 5:20 p.m.
The residents of an old kibbutz on the hills of Galilee are forced to abandon their homes when the creditors come calling. In their haste, they leave the residents of the senior citizens' home behind. Yet as the new owners of the property soon discover, these oldsters are not fossils—they are the nation's tough pioneers, and they don't want to give up without a fight. In the hands of a Hollywood director, you could probably guess where it would go from here. Thankfully, director Jonathan Paz has a different story he wants to tell than "old folks stick it to the youngsters." Instead, his tale focuses on the inside, as the dozen or so remaining residents attempt to rekindle the socialist, communal spirit that fueled the kibbutz in the first place. They also know that this is most likely their last stab at "life"—only another old-folks' home awaits them outside of the kibbutz's gates. Paz mixes humor and pathos throughout, while the veteran cast smoothes over any of the protruding edges of the story (are there no newspapers in Israel? Their plight would cause a sensation) to let us focus on the characters. Through their performances, you feel as if these characters have been fighting, bickering, and loving for the past six decades, and now they can't imagine a life outside of their longstanding home. —Ed Huyck
SATURDAY 5.3
Witnesses to a Secret War
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Oak Street Cinema, Saturday, May 3, at 2:30 p.m.
Laos's fall to Communism after the Vietnam War and the story of Hmong resettlement in America are chronicled in Deborah Dickson's affecting documentary Witnesses to a Secret War. After the U.S. evacuated Vietnam, many Hmong families fled to Thailand refugee camps, waiting for the situation to improve. But 30 years after the war, many were still living in the camps. The film follows a family relocating to St. Paul after the government allowed 15,000 Hmong refugees to resettle in America in 2003. Dickson contrasts the emotional, affecting stories of the soldiers who were deserted by the government and threatened by the Communist regime with the anxiety and sadness felt by those who went to America. But Dickson wisely examines the most affecting element of the piece: the sense of displacement felt by all. When the refugees realize they can never return to their homeland, the immense pride they had for Laos turns in equal measure to grief. —Andrew Newman
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