SUMMER STORY

Israel, 2004, 76 minutes, Colour.
Itamar Cohen, Tikva Dayan.
Directed by Shmuel Haimovich.

Summer Story is a brief film from Israel. It is a 21st century look back at life in Israel, especially for young people in country towns, in the 1980s. The setting is the war on Lebanon and conscription for that war.

The film’s focus is on a young boy, the summer holidays, his job delivering the post, his encounters with his friends, especially a young woman who has a terminal illness. The impact of the film is in the portrait of the boy as well as the detail of his interactions. The authentic setting gives a feel for life in Israel, away from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, during the period.

1. An Israeli perspective on the 1980s? From the 21st century? The children and their life at the period? The adult perspective?

2. The locations, the town and its environment, the Israeli countryside? The contrast with Lebanon and the military occupation? The musical score?

3. The title, the boy’s story, his summer and growing up?

4. Summer itself, the look of Israel in the summer, the heat, the vegetation? The holidays? The boy’s job as delivering the letters, his relationship with his friends? The sequence with the arrow? The crop-duster and his arrival, sitting in the plane? At home, reading and studying, interest in medicine? The meeting with Chaya?

5. The boy’s father going to the military and its effect at home? The soldiers, conscription? The deserters? The military coming to the town to seek out deserters? His giving the information to the soldiers, the deserter and his family hostile to him – and the boy later going to buy things to make up?

6. Chaya, her age, attractive, the boy being with her, talking and sharing, the medical discussions? The lyrical aspects of their friendship, her character, illness, the possibilities for surgery? Her preparing to go to the United States? Her death and its effect?

7. The boy going to Lebanon to find her penfriend, on the bus, with his friend? The photo, the discussions with the soldiers? Persuading the soldier to come to visit Chaya? The surgery and her death?

8. Ovidio and his anger, his antagonism towards the boy, the reconciliation? The builder, his infatuation with the woman, her rejection, his wanting to hang himself? The comic and serious tone? The boy’s mother and her love for her son?

9. The overall effect of the summer, the perspective of the 80s, the boy and his growing up, especially through his friendship with Chaya and his mission to Lebanon for her?