BANGALORE: A gentle and sympathetic look at immigrant families living in southern Israel, Avi Nesher’s Turn left At The End Of The World is humorous, charming and heart-breaking. The story is told through the eyes of two teenagers - Nicole (Netta Garti), a flirty yet incredibly naive and kind Moroccan teenager; and Sarah (Liraz Charhi), an intelligent, demure, quiet Indian girl who is always scribbling in her little notebook and whose family has just migrated to Israel.
Set in the late ‘60s, the movie takes place shortly after the Six Day War. The Talkar family from Bombay joined other Indians and immigrated to Israel, where the government placed them in a small town on the edge of the Negev Desert. This, after a large wave of Moroccan Jews moved to Israel hoping for a better life.
The Indian family was promised a more prosperous life with myriad opportunities for growth, but the Talkars find a different reality when they reach Israel. Confined to an immigrant camp in the middle of the desert, the only job available to Sarah’s father Roger (Parmeet Sethi) is work at the bottle factory, where the rest of the Indians and Moroccans work.
While tensions between the Moroccans and Indians are high, the two teenagers find unlikely friendship blossoming in the desert. Roger falls in lust with the beautiful widow next door, and before they know it, they’re having sex. Nicole’s mother finds out she’s suffering from leukemia, but doesn’t tell anyone so that her elder daughter’s wedding can go on peacefully. Meanwhile, the Moroccans at the bottle factory decide to go on strike, forcing the Indians to follow suit.
A few days of unemployment, however, gets tension rising in the neighbourhood and to lighten everyone’s mood, Roger decides to organise cricket matches. At this point, the movie feels like a cross between Lagaan and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, replete with old cliches, still wonderfully and sensitively captured.
What rings true about the film, however, is the post-colonial critiquing of these diverse cultures, that have somehow appropriated all the values of their previous rulers. The Indians consider themselves British, while the Moroccans think themselves to be more French than the French themselves.
The shift between the comic and tragic, the thoughtful and the irrelevant has been navigated masterfully, throwing laughs and tears intermittently. The star of the film is definitely Netta Garti, playing the cocky, beautiful teenager who dreams about finding her perfect lover; while Liraz Charhi plays second fiddle, but a pleasant performance nonetheless.
Verdict: Turn Left At The End Of The World is your feel good movie about love, loss and life-long friendship.
(The movie will screen at Alliance Francaise on July 17 at 6:30 pm, at Bangalore International Centre on July 30th at 6:30 pm, at Suchitra Film Society on July 25th, and at 1 Shanti Road at July 8 at 6:30 pm)
Movie: Turn Left At The End Of The World
Director: Avi Nesher
Cast: Neta Garty, Liraz Charhi, Aure Atika, jean Benguigui, Parmeet Sethi, Kruttika Desai