Amos Gitai’s Why War, his latest interrogation of war in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, is too dry and low-key to inspire.
Director: Amos Gitai
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 87′
Venice World Premiere: August 31, 2024
U.S. Release Date: TBA
U.K. Release Date: TBA
Why War is a title in need of a question mark, but the absence of that punctuation shows that writer-director Amos Gitai can’t provide an answer to it. No-one can; war is as old as mankind itself. As an Israeli, Gitai is painfully aware of that fact, and his latest interrogation of Israel’s painfully-maintained place in the world reinforces the futility of that question, and of war itself. However, that futility means that any answers the director can come up with feel incomplete.
The title Why War derives from the correspondence entered into by Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud in 1932. Despite their standing in their respective fields, they could not reach any great new conclusions on the nature of conflict. The letters, published under the title ‘Why War?’, remain brief but fascinating reads. As a portrait of men united by their fears as Jews in increasingly turbulent times, they’re prescient. Gitai clearly empathizes, and uses the letters as foci for introspection on Israel’s current moment. Yet, the conclusion at which he arrives is as inconclusive as the efforts of Einstein and Freud, but without the burden of their respective genius.
The film opens with a concert from a concert hall from Tel Aviv, before cutting to footage from the street outside. The walls are plastered in posters of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in October 2023, which sit as a permanent reminder while the city’s denizens go about their lives. As we see an outdoor yoga class take place next to the posters, Gitai invites us to ponder how life can go on when war is knocking on the door. Up to and including Why War, Gitai has spent his career to this point exploring this uneasy tension. His experience as a rescue team member during the Yom Kippur War influenced his 2000 film Kippur, and virtually every film he made before and since revisits these themes. It’s such a pity, then, that even in the depths of a new war, and working with some inspired material, he can’t bring anything new to bear.
Why War is essentially a series of vignettes, with the letters intended as a jumping-off point. Mathieu Amalric and Micha Lescot feature as Freud and Einstein respectively, while Irène Jacob and Jérôme Kircher act as conduits for the metaphors Einstein and Freud use. They also serve to introduce thoughts on war from other prominent writers such as Virginia Woolf and Susan Sontag. The structure of Why War means that the connective tissue between its various segments is weak, leading the film to become quite dry and lacking in energy. The entire production is low-cost, shot mostly on location, and primarily in hotel rooms and theatres. The cast are committed, particularly Jacob (Starring in her third political docudrama this year, and her second with Gitai, after this year’s Berlin-premiered Shikun). All recognise the newfound urgency of Einstein’s and Freud’s enquiries, but Gitai’s presentation feels less like a timebound interrogation than a drowsy musing.
If Gitai’s work has been plagued with accusations of dry introspection in the past, Why War is not going to dispel those notions. It means well, and couldn’t be more timely, but that makes its inevitable failure to say anything new that bit more disappointing.
. had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August , 2024. Read our list of films to watch at the 2024 Venice Film Festival!
