legrandangle-lgm

Irina Starshenbaum and Douglas Booth star in Michael Winterbottom’s ‘Shoshana’ Photo by Altitude Films

Michael Winterbottoms Shoshana is an unexpectedly good film that successfully sets a passionate love story against a volatile political background. History and politics indeed determine the romance and the thriller that follows from it. Loosely inspired by a true story, it has added resonance in light of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks and the horrors that followed.

Set in Tel Aviv on the eve of World War II, The British struggle to keep chaos at bay among the Palestinians and Jews who live in the region and represent a range of historical and personal experiences and visions for Israel. Corruption and terrorism exist on all sides. The film, which grapples with imperialism, colonialism and conflict over homeland and how you define it, unfolds largely from the Jewish and British points of view.

Winterbottom, whose oeuvre is very diverse, has made a number of films that dramatize historical stories set in tense areas of the world. In films like Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), This world (2002) and his recent documentary Eleven days in May (co-directed by Mohammed Sawwaf), which chronicles the bombing of Palestinians in Gaza in 2021, its central relationships become vehicles for political and social exploration. Shoshanaa particularly ambitious film, has a more encompassing scope.

Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) works for the anti-terrorist unit of the British Palestinian Police and is deeply in love with Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum), the Ukrainian-born daughter of Dov Ber Borochov, co-founder of the Zionist Marxist movement. She is a free-thinking, sexually active woman, attractive to many men and decades ahead of her time. She makes a living writing for a socialist publication and is a member of the Haganah, which was founded to defend the region’s Jewish residents.

Wilkin feels completely at home in Tel Aviv and plans to settle there permanently with Shoshana as his life partner. He studies Hebrew. In some ways he is willfully blind to reality. While his feelings for Shoshana are reciprocated, she approaches their affair with more caution, perhaps even pessimism, always mindful that outside forces, coupled with inevitable tribalism, may ultimately doom the two lovers.

In a plot reminiscent of a Greek tragedy, Shoshana becomes increasingly more involved in her case than in the idyllic vision of life in Israel that the two lovers share. While Wilkin is ultimately murdered by members of the terrorist Stern Gang, a more militant offshoot of the far-right Zionist Irgun.

The history, who’s who, and especially the political factionalism depicted in the film are not always clear to those of us (and I include myself here) who may be unfamiliar with the subject. For example, it remains unclear what exactly the British planned for the region. A one or two state solution? Or are they, the British, destined to retain power? Despite the occasional use of vivid archive footage and Shoshana’s voiceover narration trying to fill in the gaps, a little Googling may be necessary.

Yet Winterbottom, working with co-writers Laurence Coriat and Paul Viragh, and cinematographer Gilles Nuttgens, brings to life a sense of impending doom as the brutality and bombings become more frequent and intense. The momentum is building, at least in part thanks to editor Marc Richardson’s tight pace.

The film is equally successful in forging a white, shiny and cosmopolitan Tel Aviv, especially in the nightlife where couples sip cocktails and dance to Gershwin – ‘One day he will come along, the man I love…’ The carefree, sophisticated scene, and
the romantic, nostalgic lyrics in particular work excellently as both ironic commentary and at the same time accurately drawn recreation.

There is a central and arguably stereotypical relationship here between the more liberal and mild-mannered Wilkin and the tough, sometimes sadistic British police officer Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling), who has no problem using violence and torture to control Arabs and Jews . obtain information or simply obey. Morton emerges as an almost apolitical figure who has little use for either Arabs or Jews. After a Jewish bomb maker accidentally blows himself up, Morton disdainfully remarks, “There’s one less now.”

The performance is exemplary. I especially admired Melling (The Queen’s Gambit and the Harry Potter movies) as the tough and cruel police officer with no self-doubt. Making his film debut, Alby, who plays Stern, is both intensely introspective and charismatic. Irina Starshenbaum gives a subtle and understated twist to a woman in private turmoil. And Booth is completely believable as a brilliant and rational man in a world that isn’t.

But what makes Shoshana What is so successful, and surprising, is how seamlessly all these threads are woven together. While the political backdrop sometimes takes precedence over the love story, Shoshana’s heartbreaking sadness as the film nears its end is undeniable. Perhaps even more so now that the hitherto warring factions are relentlessly joining forces to fight what is seen as a greater evil. The final scene with a uniform-clad Irina, rifle in hand, positioned on a field next to members of the Irgun, says it all.

Shoshanaan American premiere, will be shown on the closing night of the Other Israel Film Festival at the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan, December 10