Unsettled Land (1987)

Original title

החולמים

Directed by

Uri Barbash

Genre

drama film

Country

Israel

Runtime

2h

Rated

PG12

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of young Jewish idealists leave post-World War I Europe to build a utopian society in the land of their ancestors. They find the land is already inhabited and must struggle to survive, forcing them to abandon their strict rules.

earnestidealisticstarkslow-burnmelancholicvisually lushcontemplativegrounded

What happens

Unsettled Land (Hebrew: החולמים, lit. The Dreamers; also known as Once We Were Dreamers) is a 1987 Israeli drama directed by Uri Barbash. The plot follows a group of young Jewish individuals who leave Europe immediately after World War I and the pogroms 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. The film premiered in the International Competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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