Vasermil

Colour, 35 mm
Israel, 2007, 92 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Set in contemporary Israel, this story of three young outsiders is seen through the eyes of an observer who focuses on the festering aspects of daily life. Shlomi, Adiel and Dima live in the town of Beersheba, they constantly play truant from school, and two of them look as if they might end up as criminals – Dima, a new immigrant from Russia, is a drug dealer, and Shlomi is given the sack and takes his revenge on his employer by trashing the latter’s pizzeria. While both have bitter experiences facing various injustices, they regard the Ethiopian Adiel a “nigger”, and call him this to his face at every opportunity. No amount of stiff persuasion is enough to prevent our three heroes from beginning their downward spiral, they don’t take ultimatums from their teachers seriously and, in all three cases, the women at home have little influence over them. But the boys manage to find their footing when they are recruited for the local soccer team by the squad’s unusual coach. At first, the lads don’t seem too enthusiastic, but things change with the up-coming youth championship, held in the famous Vasermil stadium.

About the director

Mushon Salmona read cultural and critical studies at University College, London, graduating in 2005; four years prior to this (1996–2000) he studied Communication and Audiovisual Production at London’s Metropolitan University. He began at home making short features, leaving for London in the mid-1990s where, in addition to further shorts, he also made documentaries – e.g. Dance with Me (2000), a 14-minute film about folk dancing in London’s Israeli community. After returning to Israel, he concentrated mostly on documentaries and worked in television. He was also involved in the 6-hour BBC documentary entitled The 50 Years War about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Vasermil (2007) is his feature debut.