Let It Be Morning (2021) User Reviews

Builds to a Powerful Ending

[FilmFanatic2023 · 7/10 · 6 February 2023]

"Let It Be Morning" is a thought-provoking film that slowly builds towards a powerful conclusion. The movie, directed by Jewish Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin and based on a novel by Palestinian writer Sayed Kassua, explores the daily lives of a Palestinian family living in Israel during a time of political tension.

The film opens with a scene at a wedding reception, where we are introduced to the main characters and their struggles. The story primarily focuses on the older brother, Sami, who is torn between his personal life and the political realities of the world around him.

The film sheds light on the class tensions within the community, and how certain people are worried about losing everything they have gained if they become involved in the conflict. Sami becomes a symbol of the moneyed class's unwillingness to get involved, but also a nexus for all the tensions as the story progresses.

Despite being a departure from Kolirin's previous work, "Let It Be Morning" is a well-crafted film that delves into the personal and political elements of the story and how they are intertwined. While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it is definitely worth watching for those who appreciate films that tackle complex social and political issues.

West Bank arab town suffers Israel border closing.

[maurice_yacowar · 8/10 · 1 May 2022]

As in his The Band's Visit, Israeli director Eran Kolirin uses a small incident to dramatize the Jewish-Arab tension in Israel. The present focus is entirely upon the Palestine community, as a small West Bank village suffers a brief Israeli enclosure. No reasons are given for the Israelis' restrictive posture.

Hero Sami has returned to his family for his young brother's wedding. The army's restriction costs him his important job at a Jerusalem computer company - and keeps him from his enchanting Jewish mistress there. His brother's unease in his own new marriage echoes Sami's wife's sensitivity to Sami's detachment.

Sami's father has an Old School conviction that the Palestinians should massively rebel against the Israeli outpost. They would incur a few deaths but would prevail. He also tries to protect the illegal workers he has building a house for Sami there.

When one citizen tries to drive through their blockade the Israelis shoot down his car. The driver returns, bandaged, at the end for the funeral of the Palestinian cabbie who was killed by the panicking young Israeli guard.

The local council is a corrupt gang that bullies the citizens and seems to be serving the Israelis by trying to weed out the undocumented workers. The thug leader torments the cabbie about his betraying wife and has the cabbie's cab burned when he fails to repay the loan he bought it with. Following the threat just to seize the cab this arson casts a pall of irrational self-destruction upon the community.

In dramatizing the Palestinians' plight the film presents only one Jew, that young guard who is a sad case of soldier. He twice leaves his gun loose for seizing and is prone to sleep while on watch. Yet his sympathy for Sami, his older brother's schoolmate, allows him some privilege - which only frustrates Sami more.

The gang leader also shows a soft spot for Sami, which may - or may not - be due to their sexual experimentation as kids. After his wife reveals her knowledge of his infidelity Sami revives his marriage, perhaps resigning himself to staying with his father and wife and abandoning his Jerusalem liberty.

After this dark night of the community soul the film ends ambiguously on the eponymous morning. The newspaper delivery man connotes the reopening of the road. After the cabbie's funeral the whole community marches to the border to find the Israeli guards gone.

And here is the ambiguity. Does the community's march mean they are finally moved to collectively resist the Israeli restrictions or are they acceding to their control?

The answer may lie in the frame provided by the opening and closing scenes, with their antithetical bird's eye views. The film opens with a tracking shot through the wedding reception from behind white vertical bars. This turns out to be the perspective of the white pigeons who are sup[posed to fly off at the end of the ceremony.

But they don't. They don't want to leave their cage. Even when shaken out they refuse to fly. In a later scene Sami's wife and son try to teach the pigeons to fly but they refuse. The boy and one by one his parents throw stones at the cat attacking one and at the birds who refuse to escape.

In the high angle (aka bird's eye view) closing shot we see the townspeople staring at the newly opened gate, but not moving. Like the birds, they prefer the discomfort and frustration of being caged over the opportunity - and danger - of escape.

The open end admits the viewer's political choice.

Pays off slowly but beautifully

[kmogg569 · 9/10 · 1 August 2022]

The characters grow on you over the course of the movie, so by the end you really feel the connection. Complex and ambiguous.. Acting is excellent. Well worth watching.

An Underrated Gem

[brentsbulletinboard · 9/10 · 12 March 2023]

Prisons come in a variety of forms - some imposed on us, others self-created - but, regardless of how they materialize, they all have the same impact: a means for keeping us locked in place. The myriad permutations they embody and the ways in which they affect the members of a family and their community provide the focus for acclaimed writer-director Eran Kolirin's latest. This gentle comedy-drama follows the lives of a rural community populated almost exclusively by Palestinians located within Israel's borders that suddenly and inexplicably goes on lockdown for an indefinite period of time, preventing anyone from leaving or entering. As the ordeal wears on, residents begin running out of supplies and their nerves become progressively frayed, prompting a growing number of standoffs, confrontations, revelations and even reconciliations as the characters all seek to free themselves from their confines, be they physical, emotional, psychological or relationship-oriented. But, as troubling as all this may sound, events unfurl in unexpected ways, often laced with humor, satire and heartfelt emotion. Developments tend to evolve somewhat slowly, but the payoffs are definitely worth it in a story that's beautifully told and photographed, backed by a gorgeous original score. Admittedly the picture tends to be somewhat episodic at times, but it manages to cover all its bases and leaves no narrative threads unresolved. This Un Certain Regard Award nominee from the 2021 Cannes Film Festival seems to have taken a rather long time to make it to general release, but the wait was definitely worthwhile, a touching, sincerely realized work and a genuinely heartrending cinematic gem, one of the finest films to come out of Israel in quite a while.

I'm sure Eran Kolirin meant no harm, but...

[Nozz · 5/10 · 27 October 2021]

On the basis of his three previous films, I've formed the opinion that Eran Kolerin is a good guy and certainly a good filmmaker. And I'd have given this film more than five stars except that it contains exaggerations that the international public could easily take seriously to the detriment of the State of Israel. For example, the film depicts an Arab village as being blockaded by the Israeli government to the point where food becomes scarce. I've lived in Israel for fifty years and I know that such a thing never happens, but the rest of the world doesn't know and unfortunately this is the movie that Israel is offering for nomination as Best International Feature Film.

As the joke goes, "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" Well, the movie is nicely paced and nicely acted, the characterizations resonate well, and-- behind the unfortunate exaggeration and the choice of a one-sided perspective-- the underlying issues are real.