Critic Reviews

Directed and co-written by Thierry Binisti, a TV veteran, the film boasts solid acting (especially from red-haired Bonitzer) and handsome cinematography.

Fueled by neither anger nor religious extremism - the director, Thierry Binisti, remains rigidly nonpartisan - "Bottle" is a gentle pairing of youthful idealism and tenacious hope.

The film's notion that a little understanding and a lot of e-mailing would basically solve the Middle East crisis, however, is as reductive as it is utopian.

There are no villains here, no attempts to sway opinions or even stake out political ground. Some will find that a disappointment. But the truth is that this effort is both more evenhanded than most dramas with similar themes, and more open-hearted.

Ultimately A Bottle in the Gaza Sea adds little insight into a conflict that has already inspired several powerful dramas, such as the recent "The Other Son," and is sadly likely to be the subject of many more.

The film obviously can't resolve the conflict between Palestine and Israel, but the resolution to the story's arc feels nonetheless forced and misplaced.

The initially cynical Naim suggests Tal's project is insignificant, nothing but a bottle of hope bobbing about in a sea of enmity – and so too this film.

Although smoothly directed, A Bottle in the Gaza Sea has little visual personality or dramatic urgency. What might have been a tough and adult take on a bond full of hope but thwarted by war plays more like an after-school special.