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In single-shot scenes, Amos Gitai’s Alila surveys the overlapping lives taking place in a derelict apartment complex in Tel Aviv. Lusty beauty Gabi meets up with the controlling, married Hezi for sessions of clamorous clandestine sex. Holocaust survivor Schwartz hears their moans and thinks of the camps; his Filipino housekeeper, Linda, doesn’t speak Hebrew. Mali and young Ilan are lovers; she’s divorced from Ezra, who sleeps in a van and hires illegal Chinese workers to help him build an apartment extension for Ronit (played theatrically and energetically by Israeli film star Ronit Elkabetz). Then there’s Eyal, the 18-year-old son of Ezra and Mali, who deserts from the Israeli army. Despite good acting, particularly in the dynamic between Ezra and Eyal, it’s difficult to connect with the characters. But what Gitai’s ensemble drama lacks in story it makes up for in its depiction of an increasingly multicultural country with a growing ambivalence about mandatory military service even in the shadow of the Palestinian conflict. Its emotional center is the bustling, crumbling, anxious city.
BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN
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