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New Immigrant, Old Story: Framing Russians on the Israeli Screen Olga Gershenson and Dale Hudson

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New Immigrant, Old Story: Framing Russians on the Israeli Screen Olga Gershenson and Dale Hudson New Immigrant, Old Story: Framing Russians on the Israeli Screen olga gershenson and dale hudson following the collapse of the soviet in the Israeli context, as well as sites of larger union, nearly two million people escaped the debates over accommodations and adjust- former empire to pursue new lives in Israel, ments necessary for participation within the the United States, Germany, and other coun- international community, particularly the inter- tries. By the mid-1990s, the “new Russian im- national art-house film market. migrant” had begun to emerge as a character The new Russian immigrant character in both commercial and art-house cinema in marked an important departure from rep- these countries.1 Because cinematic repre- resentations of Russian characters outside sentations of immigrants often reveal more Soviet-bloc cinemas prior to the collapse of about the cultures producing and consuming the USSR. Previously, spies and defectors had such images and narratives than they do about embodied the majority of representations of actual immigrant experiences, the Russian im- Soviet citizens, particularly in Hollywood Cold migrant character points to particular national War action-adventure films and spy thrillers. responses to new waves of immigration at the Since the fall of Soviet communism, Russian onset of post–Cold War globalization, reflecting immigrants have appeared most visibly in films gendered, ethnic, and religious contradictions that, either directly or indirectly, are concerned and inconsistencies within popular conceptions with the Russian Mafia. These new Russian im- of national identity. In this article, we examine migrant characters are typically male, such as films about female Russian immigrants to Israel the Russian mafiosi in Karma Local (US 1998; as sites of debates over nation and integration dir. Darshan Bhagat) and The Quickie (France/ UK/Germany 2001; dir. Sergei Bodrov), as well as in the acclaimed television series The So- olga gershenson is an assistant professor of Judaic and Near Eastern studies at the University pranos (US 1999–2006; prod. David Chase). of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Although a female counterpart to the Russian Gesher: Russian Theatre in Israel; A Study of Cul- mafiosi also appears in thrillers and action- tural Colonization (Peter Lang, 2005) and coeditor adventure films, such as Birthday Girl (UK/US of Ladies and Gents: Public Toilets and Gender 2001; dir. Jez Butterworth), the figure of the (Temple University Press, forthcoming). Russian woman generally holds a different sig- dale hudson is a visiting assistant professor nificance. Russian males are confined largely of film studies in the Department of English to the self-contained, predominantly homoso- at Amherst College. His work on cinema and cial, diasporic world of the Russian Mafia that new media appears in the journals Afterim- evades assimilation into its host country. By age, Studies in Documentary Film, and Screen, contrast, Russian women more often assimilate as well as in the anthology The Persistence of into their host countries through heterosexual Whiteness: Race and Contemporary Hollywood coupling, whether via prostitution, romance, Cinema (Routledge, 2007). or marriage. Recent international art films journal of film and video 60.3–4 / fall/winter 2008 25 ©2008 by the board of trustees of the university of illinois featuring such characters include Black and Politics of Immigration White (US/Russia 1992; dir. Boris Frumin), and Representation Postmark Paradise (US 2000; dir. Thompson E. Clay), Russian Doll (Australia 2001; dir. Stavros Historically, cinematic representations of im- Kazantzidis), and Balalaika (Turkey 2001; dir. migrants have expressed the politics of im- Ali Özgentürk). Israeli cinema has also pro- migration in Israel, where the Law of Return, duced several similar films, including the tele- conferring citizenship on any Diaspora Jew, vision film Kalinka Maya (Israel 1997; dir. Eitan is raison d’être of the state. This law codifies Londner), the absurdist satire Circus Palestina aliyah ( Jewish immigration to Israel, literally (Israel 1998; dir. Eyal Halfon), the sensation- “ascent”) as a top national priority and affirms alist drama The Holy Land (Israel 2001; dir. Israel’s status as a Jewish state. The ideology Eitan Gorlin), the postmodern pastiche What of Zionism and the politics of immigration re- a Wonderful Place (Israel 2005; dir. Eyal Hal- flexively reproduce and justify each other, as fon), and two romantic comedies: Saint Clara a brief history of immigration to Palestine and (Israel 1995; dir. Ari Folman and Ori Sivan) and Israel makes evident. This history is relevant to Yana’s Friends (Israel 1999; dir. Arik Kaplun). a study of cinematic representations of the new We choose to focus our analysis on Saint Clara Russian immigrant because it establishes the and Yana’s Friends because both films address historical context against which these newcom- questions about Israeli immigration, particu- ers are evaluated. larly shifts in immigration policy in response to The first waves of politically Zionist immigra- national identity, and both enjoyed consider- tion came to Palestine from eastern, central, able visibility on the national and international and western Europe in the first half of the twen- film circuits. tieth century. These immigrants, mainly Euro- We read Saint Clara and Yana’s Friends as pean (Ashkenazi) Jews, formed the cultural, po- immigration narratives that posit assimilation litical, and economic elite of Israeli society. The of female immigrants into Israeli society as next major waves of immigrants came in the amenable, indeed possible, only through ro- late 1940s and 1950s, mainly from the Middle mance with a sabra (native-born Israeli) man. East and North Africa (Mizrahi Jews).2 Many of Alone, Clara and Yana represent inassimilable them were forced to migrate because of hostili- immigrants, ones whose very identities em- ties against Jews in primarily Islamic countries, body indifference to, or disengagement from, incited by the founding of Israel. Zionist emis- Israeli-Zionist ideologies. Because these immi- saries actively recruited Mizrahi Jews, but once gration narratives are told through the generic in Israel, these immigrants were subjected formulas of romantic comedy, they feature to the ethnocentric and colonial attitudes of representations of women, who, invariably, the Ashkenazi minority. Conflict between the mobilize their youth, beauty, and sexuality for Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Israelis remains unre- survival within narrative structures of the rela- solved; it constitutes an entrenched source of tive powerlessness of immigrants. Saint Clara simmering discontent that routinely surfaces and Yana’s Friends thus converge and depart in national politics (Dahan-Kalev; Kimmerling; from stereotypes of Russian women as femmes Swirski). In the 1990s, immigrants from the for- fatales, mail-order brides, or prostitutes on the mer Soviet Union arrived in the middle of these international film circuit. By exploring the new ethnic and political tensions, forming the first character of the Russian immigrant woman massive wave of immigration (about 900,000 within the specific context of Israeli cinema, we people) since the 1950s. Together with the im- contribute to the study of the politics of Israeli migrants from the USSR who came to Israel in cinematic representations of ethnicity, pio- the 1960s–80s (about 140,000), Russian immi- neered by Ella Shohat and continued by Yosefa grants today constitute one of the largest ethnic Loshitzky and Nurith Gertz. groups. 26 journal of film and video 60.3–4 / fall/winter 2008 ©2008 by the board of trustees of the university of illinois Tensions quickly developed between the Immigrants, Zionism, and Israeli Cinema new Russian immigrants and local Israeli Jews, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi alike. The Mizrahi com- The position of Russian immigrants in con- munity saw the large surge in Russian immi- temporary Israeli cinema emerges within the gration as reinforcing Ashkenazi dominance historical interplay of nation formation and in Israeli society; the Ashkenazi community state cultural institutions. Historically, Zionism disapproved of the immigrants’ lack of Zionist appropriated cinema as a significant means of commitment, knowledge of Israeli Jewish cus- generating national consciousness. In the local toms, and desire to assimilate. Both Mizrahi context, however, it is complicated by the over- and Ashkenazi communities were concerned lapping of ethnic and religious identity, implied with the unusually large proportion of non- in Israel’s status as the “Jewish state” and by Jews among the new Russian immigrants.3 the right to citizenship, conferred by the Law These tensions found expression in media of Return. In this section, we trace some of the stereotypes of Russian immigrants as desta- moments, pertinent to our arguments, in Israeli bilizing, if not outright threatening, to Israeli cinema, its representations of immigrants, and national identity. The Israeli media propagated its immigration narratives. this stereotype, depicting Russian immigrants From the 1920s through the 1950s, cinema as alcoholics, child abusers, and wife beaters was “widely used as propaganda promot- and as a community of criminals, drug deal- ing Jewish immigration to Palestine, for ers, and prostitutes. fund-raising among Jewish communities and With rare exception, Russian immigrants for political lobbying in Europe and [North] were
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