The Lesson

In The Lesson (aka. שעת אפס, Zero Hour[1]) Tensions within Israeli society start to play out in a high school classroom. During a civics class the teacher, Amir Halevi (Doron Ben-David), proposes that the class come up with a topic of discussion. One of the pupils, Lianne Zarhi (Maya Landsman), wants to ban Arabs from the public pool. Amir doesn't react well to this and the situation in the classroom descends into chaos with Lianne leading some of her fellow students in a chant of "Death to Arabs." Amir find himself reported to the school board for badmouthing the IDF. The following day, Amir catches Lianne dancing with a loaded assault rifle in the schoolyard. He loses his rag and uses some intemperate language, comparing Lianne's fascistic views to Nazism. He is caught on camera. Selectively edited footage is posted online and goes viral.

Where The Lesson does well is with the acting. The effect of the publicity on Amir and his ex wife and children is well realised. Although his interpersonal relationships are fairly standard fare, they are played with affection and insight by all the actors involved. Landsman's performance as Lianne stands out. Her portrayal of poor body image insecurity and feelings of lack of recognition builds into something more complex and subtle than just angry youth. The burgeoning romantic relationship between her and Asi (Leib Levin) feels entirely believable. My one gripe about the acting is Adam El Shir's Alon, Asi's brother. The physical acting in his portrayal of brain injury is some off colour thing from the 1980s.

What does not impress is the direction. The main problem with it is the constant use of shallow depth of field. When any character is talking, only they are in focus. This cripples the performances of the other actors. You can't see their emotional reactions to the speaker. It is done in a very clumsy fashion. The wrong objects can end up being the most prominent thing in shot: the glaring green pot plant; the white fuzzed up notepad blowing out the whole screen; the tree throbbing in and out of focus as it blows in the wind. The camera operators have a hard time keeping the correct focus when things start moving. Filming difficulties have been used to great effect in, for instance, Homicide: Life On The Street, but The Lesson does not have pseudo-documentary affectations.

The direction isn't all bad. When it comes to action, Eitan Zur handles it very well. His experience with police procedural really shows. The episodes end with drifting aerial shots of suburban night. It's enough to give the audience a calming brake from the politically charged issues at the heart of The Lesson.

By the end of The Lesson the message seams to be that both sides need to talk and come to some sort of accommodation in order to prevent violent extremism. The problem is that giving some ground to fascism means you accept some fascism and giving ground to racism means you accept some racism. Every time you do this the centre ground moves to the right and you have to make another compromise with those evils.

[1] The first hour in a school day (7-8 a.m.)

The Lesson is screening on ChaiFlicks now.