Horst_In_Translation Review of Jerusalem

Jerusalem (2013)

Slightly clumsy at times, but overall a good summary of the city

[6/10 · 27 January 2019]

"Jerusalem" is an American English-language IMAX documentary from 2013, which means that this one is also already over 5 years old. It was written and directed by Daniel Ferguson and I was a bit surprised because I am not really familiar with the name and I have seen a lot IMAX stuff and normally they use filmmakers from other IMAx works (most of all McGillivray of course), but his inclusion here has probably to do with his experience on the subjects (in the widest sense) as he worked on several films about Mecca. His recent work here runs for 44 minutes, slightly over, and as such still falls into short film territory by imdb standards, even if it is close. Narrator is Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch and I found his narration pretty stale and lackluster and maybe the weakest aspect of the entire project. Luckily like many other times they also have locals narrate at least on some occasions and listening to the young woman and all her dedication and enthusiasm was fun in my opinion and elevated the material. I think when the film focuses on why the city is so special and worth visiting and not on religion, this movie was at its best. It does not suck when focusing on religion, but it gets slightly worse. Then again, of course you cannot leave that component out when talking about a city like Jerusalem. But maybe you can make it more interesting to audiences. Overall, I am not entirely impressed by checking this one out, but it is good enough for me for a positive recommendation and actually I feel a slight urge to visit Jerusalem at some point, so mission accomplished I guess. I hope perhaps Ferguson gets a chance to elaborate on other subjects away from his expertise in the Middle East. His style here is good enough in my opinion to make an impact in other fields too and I probably would have kept watching if this was a full feature 1.5-hour documentary. Thumbs up. Go check it out, regardless if you are from Jerusalem/Israel or from anywhere else in the world.