Gift from Above (2003) User Reviews

well done, hard to categorize

[dromasca · 7/10 · 5 August 2006]

It's quite difficult to place 'Present from the Skies' into a well-defined corner. It's an Israeli film, but it does not look too much as other Israeli films. On one hand it is done with a professionalism and story telling skills that very few Israeli films have. It does borrow some elements of the so called 'burekas' comedies - genre inspired from the life of the development towns or suburbs in the 70s or 80s, but it dares to deal with issues related to the life and habits of some of the Israeli social groups in a manner that exceeds many of the self-imposed limits other Israeli creators place on themselves.

The film deals with the Georgian community in Israel, and is half spoken in Georgian, and from this point of view reminds other ethnic films in the world cinema. The way the director Dover Koshashvili - of Georgian origin himself - approaches aspects of the family relations and especially the attitude towards women is of an extreme, almost cruel realism, and all is done with no intention of programmatic social or moral judgment. The director focuses on creating the right atmosphere, depicting a world, and inviting the viewer to judge by himself. Good acting adds to this movie which offers an experience different of all other Israeli movies that you may have seen.

Kusturica? Are you joking?

[fearraigh · 1/10 · 29 September 2005]

Any similarities that the previous correspondent sees between this and the uneven, but always interesting work of Emir Kusturica, must be the result of having seen the supremely awful Gift from Above with an altered mind. Kosashvilli's film is one of the most annoying, poorly-scripted (first year film students would be able to construct the plot better than he does), badly-acted and sloppily-directed pieces of muck that I have had the misfortune to see this year, and I have seen many poor films in the past nine months. If this film had been made by an outsider about the Georgian community of Tel Aviv, they would have a good case for racist stereotyping. As it is, it was made by one of their own and we are all invited to have a merry laugh at the constant humiliation and molestation of women in situations that are not even structurally or physically comical. The plot strand of the young bride forced to get married under the threat of rape is particularly offensive and what is laughable is the expertly millennial sex that this putative virgin enjoys on her wedding night. One wonders exactly how much Kosashvilli knows about real life rather than what he has gleaned from third-rate Hollywood pictures. Our Israeli friend is not the only one to have had bafflingly positive reactions to this film; Cahiers du Cinema compared it to Scorsese. Not even the turgid hackwork churned out by Marty in the past ten years is anywhere near as bad as Gift from Above. A measure of how messy the film is that you are watching it for a full before it becomes apparent that most of the characters are members of the one family. Fundamentals of plot structuring. There is a lot of good cinema coming about of Israel at the moment, such as Raphael Nadjeri's Avanim, Ronit Elkabetz's Prendre Femme and the continuing cinema of Amos Gitai. Gift from Above however is awful rubbish that makes even poor Israeli films like Nir Bergman's Broken Wings seem watchable. Avoid.

Utter trash.

[fichdichindemarsch · 1/10 · 13 June 2021]

Mindless drivel with disturbing scenes of a very young boy and an older naked woman. Cheap, mindless, debasing tripe.

Extreme, funny and quite bizarre for western values. Kosashvili is the local Kusturica.

[adnatan · 10/10 · 17 January 2004]

A colorful extreme display of the Israeli director. Matana MiShamayim (gift from heaven) is quite different from Kosashvili's "Late Marriage". The primitive traditional family values (Georgian in this case) are brought here some steps beyond to present a comic macabre reality. Women, for example, are portrayed in the film as objects to be used in the patriarchal chauvinistic society they live in. They are kidnapped, threatened, locked in a closet and often molested in order to channel shame on their husbands (countless knickers are pulled down revealing genitalia in public). On the other hand, they are always the center of attention, encompassing every aspect of desire men have, thus they can control and manipulated men, but only to a certain extent - the head of the family (played by the amazing actor Mony Moshonov). Actors are doing a great job under Kosashvili's direction, and one can find similarities between him and Kusturica. The weakest part of the film is in the script, which fluctuates from brilliance to embarrassment. The bottom line, I warmly recommend.

Israeli-Georgian Cocktail

[desfarges · 8/10 · 31 July 2007]

The film has got a lot of comedy and action as well as pretty romantic scenes.

The story is based around a chaotic Georgian family living in Israel. The comedy is really great. Parallel the film gives an interesting portray of Georgian culture. Fantastic actors. The film is half in Hebrew and half in Georgian.

I watched it twice, for better understanding and because I liked it so much. Many scenes are exaggerated and the extreme situations must be looked upon on as comedy, otherwise one would find many scenes as offensive or discriminative. For my taste, too much nudity though.

A good georgian show

[cueball2387 · 8/10 · 19 December 2003]

This movie is not as good as the first one but is in the same style and idea. This one has some very funny ideas in it. Moni Moshonov (as always) gives a great show, he is by far one of the best (if not the best) actor in israel today. He is however the only one that does not take his clothes of. This movie like hatona meoheret has a alot (some might say too much) of nudity and sex scenes so dont. Hope you enjoy and if you do watch hatona meoheret