SHOSHANA

UK/Italy, 2023, 121 minutes, Colour.

Douglas Booth, Irina Starshenbaum, Harry Melling, Aury Alby, Ian Hart.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom.

With newsreel footage from the period, especially the rise of Nazism and the migration of Jews to Palestine in the mid 1930s, the audience is introduced to tensions between Jews and Arabs, British administration after World War I, underground groups, sabotage and terror, the years preceding the establishing of the state of Israel in 1948.

The film was released at the time of the Hamas massacre of Israelis and the taking of hostages in 2023. It was screened during the subsequent year, Israel’s attack on Hamas, the bombardment of Gaza, the deaths of tens of thousands, and then the attack on Hezbollah and the bombardment of Lebanon during night 2024.

While the title focuses on a young Jewish woman, work is a journalist, daughter of a pioneer Zionist Socialist, the screenplay often moves away from her for quite some time, focusing more on the British police and the Haganah group, religious and literary inspiration, but underground terrorism, bombs and sabotage to make their presence felt.

The film also focuses on the British police presence, Harry Melling portraying Morton, severe and single-minded, working in the North, informants, exercising life and death authority, shootings, public executions. Douglas Booth, by contrast, is Tom Wilkin, a pleasant gentleman, working in Tel Aviv which is building itself up as a city. Irina Starshebaum plays Shoshana, in a relationship with Wilken, on and off, especially with her loyalties to him as well as to the Jewish movement.

Michael Winterbottom has been directing films since the 1980s, quite a wide range of topics and themes, but interested in political films such as Welcome to Sarajevo, In this World about migrants from Afghanistan, Trishna with an Indian setting.

1. The title, the focus on Shoshana, as a character, in the context of the 1930s and Palestine, the British, her work, relationships?
2. Audience knowledge of this period, the release of the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s, Jewish migrants to Palestine? Post-World War I, the British administration? The issues of the Jews, Zionist movements, protests, undercover activities? The Arabs, the sense of displacement, protests and activities? Leading to the experience of the war, knowledge of the Holocaust after the war, the state of Israel? The introduction, the use of newsreel footage, information, moods?
3. The recreation of the period, the information about Europe, Germany, the migrants, the British authorities, the Jewish Governor, successful administration or not? The role of the military, in the North, severity, interrogations and executions? The creation of Tel Aviv, activities in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? Underground activities, sabotage, explosions, Arab deaths, Jewish deaths?
4. Tel Aviv is a city, building itself up during this period?
5. The introduction to Shoshana, her family, the reputation of her father, the Zionist Socialist, the Haganah, the organisation, paramilitary, her ability to shoot, activities? Her work as a journalist, in the office, the party, the encounter with Tom, her relationship, scenes with him, intimacy? The ups and downs of the relationship?
6. Shoshana and the title but her disappearing from large parts of the film?
7. The British, post-World War I, talent for administration, failures? The police, Tom and his role as police, Morton and his work in the North, the police chief, Cairns, the torture sequences, the attack on Cairns and his death? Robert Chambers, his authority, the contacts, sympathies, loyalty to government, observing the executions?
8. The leader of the secret group, poet, communication with people? The range of the members of the Haganah, their meetings, activities, sabotage, the deaths, the police pursuit? The protecting of the poet?
9. Morton, personality, his police role, in the North, informants, arrests, interrogations, torture? The shooting individuals? Public executions?
10. The complexity of the relationship between Tom and Shoshana, his personality, with the British, socially, politically, working with Morton, Morton in charge, Morton and his wife?
11. The years passing, the underground group, young, the men, the weapons, police pursuit, having to move, their being killed, arrested?
12. Shoshana and her moving away from Tom, yet returning to him?
13. The arrest of the poet, the interrogation, his defiance, becoming a martyr?
14. Morton and Tom being targeted, Tom being blamed for the execution, the dangers, his being killed?
15. This film as an introduction to the decades succeeding the state of Israel, the place of the Arabs, the subsequent wars? And, after the release of this film, the Hamas attack on the bombardment of Gaza and then of Lebanon?