Himmo, King of Jerusalem

Himmo, King of Jerusalem (Hebrew: חימו מלך ירושלים, tr. Himmo Melech Yerushalaim) is an 84-minute 1987 Israeli Hebrew-language independent underground dramatic art film directed by Amos Guttman.[1]

Film poster

Synopsis

Adapted by Edna Mazia from an eponymous 1966 novel by Yoram Kaniuk,[2] the film, set in an abandoned monastery-turned-clinic (the film was shot at the Monastery of the Cross), unfolds during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. A young and beautiful volunteer nurse, Hamutal Horowitz (Alona Kimhi), is romantically drawn to the enigmatic Himmo Perach (Ofer Shikartsi),[3] a mortally wounded and mutilated soldier and former charismatic philanderer who cannot speak (except when he asks to be shot, though nobody in the monastery has the courage to do so) or move as he had most of his limbs removed without anesthesia due to severe shortages. Jealousy amongst the other patients, all in love with Hamutal though receiving only professional care, soon begins to emerge.[4]

The film, financed by the Israel Film Fund and developed at Herzliya Studios, stars inter alia Icho Avital, Mika Rottenberg, Amiram Gabriel, Yossi Graber, Shai Kapon, Amos Lavi, Dov Navon, Aliza Rosen, and Sivan Shavit and has cinematography by Jorge Gurvich, production by Enrique Rottenberg,[5] and music by Ilan Virtzberg (in addition to the 1946 song Yatzanu At, written by Haim Hefer and Dudu Barak, performed by Shoshana Damari).

Reception

It was screened and won several prizes at the 1988 Toronto International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Haifa International Film Festival, and 1988 Chicago International Film Festival, despite being a commercial flop with only 21,000 tickets sold.[6]

Journalist Meir Schnitzer dismissed the film for its “lack of plot” and “visual ugliness,”[7] and similar pontifications were voiced by other journalists such as Gidi Orsher, who dismissed its “pretentiousness” and called it a stain on the Israeli film “industry,”[8] and Nachman Ingber, who called it “miserable, tiring, heavy, a boring and slow film in which nothing happens” and complained that it utilized “too much dialogue and too little action.”[9]

Outside Israel, where the film was distributed by the National Center for Jewish Film, TV Guide also dismissed the “stagy, with a fair amount of speechmaking” approach.[10] The film was released on DVD in Israel by Third Ear DVDs as part of a boxset containing the complete filmography of Guttman[11] and an equivalent boxset was released in France by Bach Films.[12] Several nowadays notable Israeli film people, such as Rony Gruber, Samuel Maoz, Shva Salhoov, and Shahar Segal started out as crew bit parts on this film.

References
  1. Avitzur, Shuli (Summer 2007). עמוס גוטמן: במאי יוצר מצור(ים) [Amos Guttman: Directing Under Siege]. History and Theory: The Protocols, Volume 5 (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  2. Almog, Prof. Dr. Oz פרידה משרוליק: שינוי ערכים באליטה הישראלית [Farewell to “Srulik:” Changing Values Among the Israeli Elite] (in Hebrew). II. Haifa and Or Yehuda: University of Haifa’s Haifa University Press and Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir. 2004. p. 631. ISBN 9789653110519. OCLC 56795640. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  3. Ido, Amatzya (7 October 1987). עופר שב משדה־הקרב [Ofer Returns From Battlefield] (PDF). Yedioth Ahronoth’s Kol Haifa (in Hebrew). Rishon LeZion: Yedioth Ahronoth Group. p. 16. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  5. Shamgar, Irit (12 June 1986). בורגני צמוד [A Tight Bourgeois]. Maariv (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv-Yafo: Jerusalem Post Group’s The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  6. Ne’eman, Prof. Dr. Yehuda Judd. Israeli Cinema. In: Leaman, Prof. Dr. Oliver Norbert Harold, ed. (October 2001). Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film. London and New York, New York: Informa’s Taylor & Francis and Routledge. pp. 233, 277, and 334–335. ISBN 9781134662517. OCLC 45466264. Retrieved 24 March 2018.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  7. Schnitzer, Meir (October 1987). איפה אל״ף? איפה בי״ת? [No ABCs] (PDF). Hadashot (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv-Yafo: Haaretz Group. p. 23. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  8. Orsher, Gidi (October 1987). המלך הוא עירום [The King Is Naked] (PDF). Haaretz (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv-Yafo: M. DuMont Schauberg and Haaretz Group. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  9. Ingber, Nachman (16 October 1987). יש עשן בלי אש [Smoke Without Fire] (PDF). Yedioth Ahronoth (in Hebrew). Rishon LeZion: Yedioth Ahronoth Group. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  10. "Himmo, King of Jerusalem". TV Guide. New York, New York and Troy, Michigan: CBS Corporation’s CBS Interactive and NTVB Media. 1988. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  11. Guttman, Amos (1 June 2007). עמוס גוטמן: האוסף המלא [Amos Guttman: Complete Filmography] (DVD) (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv-Yafo: Third Ear DVDs. OCLC 885305029. Retrieved 4 March 2018. Reported in: Yudilovitch, Merav. סיפור חייו בקופסא [His Life Story in a Boxset]. Yedioth Ahronoth’s Ynet (in Hebrew). Rishon LeZion: Yedioth Ahronoth Group. 10 June 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2018. Weizmann, Daniel (1 November 2012). דיוידנדים: עמוס גוטמן – מהארון אל המדף [Dividends: Amos Guttman – From the Closet to the Shelf]. Yedioth Ahronoth’s Ynet (in Hebrew). Rishon LeZion: Yedioth Ahronoth Group. Retrieved 6 October 2018. Shoval, Tom. חסד של אמת [A Truthful Grace]. Haaretz’s HaIr Tel Aviv (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv-Yafo: M. DuMont Schauberg and Haaretz Group’s Schocken Group. 3 July 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2018. Lachman, Dan. עמוס גוטמן – מארז אסופת סרטיו [Amos Guttman – A Boxset of His Collected Films]. E-Mago (in Hebrew). 9 February 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2018. Reprinted as: Lachman, Dan (16 July 2007). רק על עצמו לספר ידע [He Only Knew How to Talk About Himself]. GoGay (in Hebrew). Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  12. Guttman, Amos (21 March 2014). Amos Guttman: L’intégrale [Amos Guttman: Complete Filmography] (DVD) (in French and Hebrew). Paris: Bach Films. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
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