Campfire

Campfire looks a bit drab, perhaps to show the dullness of Zionist life in the 1980s. But this doesn't take away from the poignancy of the film.

Coming at a time when the settlements on the Gaza Strip are being dismantled, Cedar's film offers a sly critique of their origins, and refreshingly different point of view.

An affecting portrait of a young widow and her two teenage daughters.

If Campfire is solidly acted, it is visually drab and has a haphazard narrative momentum.

The timelier elements of Campfire, which cleared house at Israel's Academy Awards this year, are too salient to dismiss.

The darker aspects of tribalism come under scrutiny here as nonconformists (unmarried men, women alone) are shown being marginalized.

Typical of too many films produced in Israel: plodding, verbose, badly-made and completely monotonous.