Freefall by Anna Levine

At an age where American teens are graduating from high school and deciding what they want to do with the next few years of their lives, Israeli youths are preparing to be drafted into military service. Eighteen-year-old Aggie is getting ready for this leap. Though she has other alternatives, the petite, unusually intelligent young woman decides to train for combat.

Putting aside her friends and her first kiss with her crush, she goes to boot camp. While hauling sandbags in the scorching desert and performing other grueling tests of stamina, she discovers a new kind of friendship with the other young women in her troop. And when war breaks out on the Lebanese border, she faces bigger tests of loyalty, perseverance and courage.

I was thoroughly absorbed in this book. Every piece of this story -- from the arid desert and boot camp food to life in a bomb shelter under a war zone -- felt real. Having once been a teenager, I related to Aggie's quotidian struggles to sort out relationships with guys and make decisions about her future. However, I also got to experience a kind of life I've never had to face. I could feel what it was like to trudge through the desert and the gut-wrenching fear of traveling across a war-torn country.

While it deals with the reality of war, this is an uplifting book. I recommend it for both teens and adults, particularly those who, like me, relish the opportunity to open a door to another part of the world.

Rating: 3

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

The Kite

The Kite is a unique foreign film which blends contemporary history with magical realism -- I've never seen anything like it.

This Lebanese movie, directed by Randa Chahal Sabagh, portrays a Druze village near the border between Lebanon and Israel. The Druze faith, as I understand it, is closely related to Islam. However there are some important differences. For example, the Druze faith includes a belief in reincarnation.
We are drawn into the lives of Lamia, a beautiful 16-year-old girl, her mother, her aunts, and her beloved little brother. The men are on the periphery, making decisions that dictate women's lives but seldom in the picture. Lamia's hand in marriage has been promised to her cousin Samy, who lives on the other side of the Lebanese-Israeli border.



Their community was divided when land was annexed by Israel. Lamia's portion of the community is separated from Samy's by barbed wire fences, guarded by an Israeli military checkpoint which they are not allowed to cross. This boundary separates brothers, sisters and cousins. We see women gathered along the fence line, armed with megaphones, shouting to their estranged loved ones on the other side while Israeli soldiers listen and take notes. The conversations between women, broadcast over megaphones, is often off-color and hilarious and sometimes made me cringe. For example, a woman advertised her son's sexual prowess to his intended bride's family, making reference to his affinity for nanny goats. Ahem ... :-)

Watching this, we realize Lamia will have to cross this border to join her new husband, whom she's never met. She will do it alone, as only new brides and the dead are allowed across, and she is unlikely to see her family again.

We alternate between her story and the lives of the Israeli soldiers who guard the checkpoint. One of them is Youssef, a young Druze physicist trying to fit in with his Jewish comrades at arms. He watches Lamia, and hears her mother and aunts discussing her future over megaphones, and he comes to feel he "knows everything about her." A spark of passion is kindled between the two teens. Then the movie becomes increasingly dream-like as it delves into the possibility of forbidden love in the midst of occupation.

This is a partly a movie about war and political oppression. It is clearly told from the Lebanese/Arab perspective; the Israeli side of the story isn't explored. Nevertheless it is an eye-opening story about lives reshaped by shifting political boundaries and military intervention. It also explores the ways women assert themselves and exert control over their lives in a patriarchal  society that gives them a narrow range of choices.

The film is full of vibrant imagery, much of which has a symbolic quality. As it reaches its climax, it becomes increasingly dream-like, so the images seem more real than the plot. When I think about this movie, images are what stick with me most clearly. I see the pure white of Lamia's billowing wedding dress, as she makes her solitary trek across the border, and of the children's white kites floating around the barbed wire fence. I see men's boots filling the screen, bringing authority and emphasizing the divisions between people. And of course the ubiquitous guns and barbed wire. This is a story about innocence and love in a world carved up by ever-changing political boundaries, war and violence.

Rating:

Cherished Favorite	Excellent Film	Good Movie	Meh	Definitely Not For Me