Copyright by Yaron Shemer 2005
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Copyright by Yaron Shemer 2005 The Dissertation Committee for Yaron Shemer certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Identity, Place, and Subversion in Contemporary Mizrahi Cinema in Israel Committee: __________________________ John Downing, Supervisor __________________________ Charles Ramírez Berg, Supervisor __________________________ Hamid Naficy __________________________ Abraham Marcus __________________________ Ella Shohat __________________________ Karin Wilkins Identity, Place, and Subversion in Contemporary Mizrahi Cinema in Israel by Yaron Shemer, B.F.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2005 Acknowledgments Much gratitude to my committee members—near and far: To Ella Shohat, Karin Wilkins, and Hamid Naficy for their genuine interest in this work; to Abraham Marcus, whose advice, collegiality, and friendship I truly cherish; to Charles Ramírez Berg, the committee co-chair, for his continued support and guidance. Special thanks to John Downing (J.D.), co-chair, whose wisdom and judgment I have sought in the different stages and permutations of this work. I am indebted to him for more than showing me the way, he taught me there is more than one way... Thanks to: My long-time acquaintance Elizabeth Fernea (B.J.), with whom I consulted along the way, but who, for unexpected reasons, could not be involved in this study’s last phase; my colleagues Avraham Zilkha, Esther Raizen, Adam Newton, and Yair Mazor for their encouragement; and Sami Shalom Chetrit whose work and activism have been inspirational to me. My dear friend in Israel, Daphna Amit Selbst, whose friendship of over 30 years(!) naturally transpires in this work and to my amiga Vanessa Fonseca in Costa Rica whose insightful comments I have always welcomed. My parents who spoiled me on my two research trips to Israel but also made sure that I do not indulge too much and produce too little. I am grateful to the staff at the Jerusalem Cinematheque/Israel Film Archive for their expertise and professionalism and, specifically, to Costel Safirman, Ilil Barak, Nirit Eidelman, Michal Mendelboym, and Avi Green, all at the Cinematheque’s library; to Daniela Faingold, Sivan Kalai, Linor Molcho of the video department; and to Aviva iv Meirom, office manager. Special thanks to Dror Izhar, Cinematheque Tel Aviv’s librarian, for locating some of the obscure film reviews I doubted were available. My thanks to Jeanette Herman for the final editing and to Virginia Howell for formatting the text. Ultimately, what made this study possible are the filmmakers and other members of the film community in Israel who, by allowing me to interview them, became full participants in this project. I am obliged to them for the time we spent together and for sharing their knowledge with me. Many thanks to Rami Kimchi for interviews that turned into invigorating conversations, which were a natural continuation of our cordial relationship since the time we attended the Film-Television Department at Tel Aviv University in the early 1980s. I hope that the interviews I conducted with filmmakers Duki Dror, Eli Hamo, Yossi Madmony, Orly Malessa, Yamin Messika, Avi Nesher, David Ofek, and Tali Shemesh were a beginning of new friendships that will be sustained. v Identity, Place, and Subversion in Contemporary Mizrahi Cinema in Israel Publication No. __________________ Yaron Shemer, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2005 Supervisors: John Downing; Charles Ramírez Berg This study explores the construction of Mizrahi (Oriental-Jewish) ethnic identity in contemporary Israeli films and its inscription by power imbalances and by the positionality of the Mizrahi in Israeli society. Against the widespread dismissal of ethnic divisions informed by the precept of societal pastiche, this work articulates the modalities through which Mizrahi films (made by Mizrahi filmmakers and others) employ narratives, characters, and space to cull ethnic differences in the depiction of this ethnic group. Accordingly, this study of Mizrahi cinema reveals how even when the filmic text is seemingly foregrounding dilemmas pertaining to class and gender, the ethnic issue lurks underneath and threatens to burst forth. For decades after the establishment of the State, Israeli films mostly acquiesced with Zionism’s dominant discourse, whereby the Mizrahi was deemed an inferior other whose “Levantine” culture was believed to pose a threat to the Western-oriented Zionist vi enterprise. This study proposes that the attested commonalities between Mizrahi and Arab cultures of recent Mizrahi films are meant precisely to offer an alternative to the hegemonic ethno-national narrative, and to remedy the social and cultural marginalization of the Mizrahi group that this discourse has allowed to persist. But this work also attends to the problematics involved in the attempts by second-generation Mizrahi filmmakers to reclaim their parents’ Arab culture. The barrier of language and the impossibility for most of them of going back to their parents’ countries of origin necessitate a construction of the past that is highly mediated and tortuous. Beyond its analysis of the pro-filmic materials, this study inquires about the role cultural policies and institutional power in Israel have recently played in shaping Mizrahi cinema. Identity, Place, and Subversion in Contemporary Mizrahi Cinema in Israel examines how fund allocations and television programming have created the Mizrahi niche in cinema—a space that defines and contains contesting voices more than it nourishes them. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... iv Abstract................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction..............................................................................................................................1 Mizrahi Cinema: Definition and Parameters ...............................................3 Film Corpus .................................................................................................7 Methodology..............................................................................................10 The Structure of the Study .........................................................................13 Chapter 1: Literature Review and Historical Context............................................................18 a. Theoretical Framework .........................................................................................19 Background................................................................................................19 Representation in Postcolonial Studies: Stereotypes and Power ...............30 Voice: The Power to Represent .................................................................37 Identity: Alterity, Difference, and Hybridity .............................................40 The Text.....................................................................................................47 Agency, Change, and the Problem of Essentialism ...................................52 b. The Mizrahi Problem: Critical Overview .............................................................61 c. Historical Review of Periods and Genres in Israeli Cinema.................................78 d. Conclusion: Goals and Contribution.....................................................................92 Chapter 2: The Problematics of Representation.....................................................................95 a. The Parameters of Critiquing Mizrahi Representation in Israeli Films ................97 b. The Burden of Representation ............................................................................109 Chapter 3: The Cinematic Construction of Mizrahi Identity ...............................................126 a. Beyond the Essentialist/Constructionist Dyad: Culture and Identity..................126 b. The Dual Valuation of Arab-Jewish Identity......................................................132 c. The Reconstruction of the Past: Origins, Irony and Postmodernist Winks.........148 d. Case Study: The Barbecue People......................................................................161 e. Conclusion...........................................................................................................170 viii Chapter 4: The Emplacement of the Mizrahi: Space, Hybridity, and Positionality....173 a. Thirdspace, Indeterminacy, and Citationality .....................................................174 b. The Problematics of Thirdspace: Hybridity of Emaciation ................................187 c. Cinematic Topos: The Inscription of Marginality ..............................................194 d. A Normative Space: Marginality “In-Itself” or “For-Itself”?.............................208 e. The Mizrahi Niche: Emplacement and Displacement ........................................219 Film Funds ...............................................................................................223 Television.................................................................................................228 Chapter 5: The Absence of Power and the Power of Absence: Victimhood, Struggle, and