Victoria Uchitel | סימן רכות (Soft Sign) / 2023

what about us?

by Douglas Messerli

 

Victoria Uchitel (screenwriter and director) סימן רכות (Soft Sign) / 2023 [24 minutes]

 

This film begins with Natalie’s sister calling out to her asking if she can fill in for her at cleaning the house at which she works; she has other plans for the day.

    With camera in hand, “Natash” (Sharon Strimban) doesn’t respond having entered the private world of the cameraman through which she observes most of this short film by Israeli filmmaker Victoria Uchitel. On the radio is a newscast about the upcoming 1996 elections.* She is attempting to get his sister’s attention to ask her to substitute for her in her cleaning job in Denya, an affluent suburb of Haifa, the city where apparently these women live.

    The sister, Dasha (Eugenia Itin), is going away for the weekend with her boyfriend Erez (Amit Roth), an Israeli soldier, who arrives and almost immediately barges into Natalie’s bedroom, leafing through her videos, mostly with the name Amir on them, the boyfriend suspiciously asking, isn’t that your “Arab” boyfriend?

     Two things are worth observing, Natalie speaks Hebrew, while her sister speaks Russian. And Natalie, it is clear, would rather be a boy or least be perceived as being a female looking more like a boy than a female. When she spills some bleach on her shirt, she borrows a male T-shirt, a causal dress shirt and a hat from the people in Denya for whom she is cleaning house in her sister’s place. She also stuffs some stockings and other extras in her crotch to make herself look as if she has a penis.

      In 1996, it should be understood this was not always a sign of a transgender desire, but simply a statement of the way, as a woman, she preferred to appear before the world. Transgender behavior was still rare in that time, and if one felt lesbian feelings it sometimes expressed itself in what is described, often as a slur, as dyke behavior, the desire to appear butch or androgynous.  

     Finished with her cleaning, she meets up as planned with Amir (Muhammad Toukhy), who for his own broadcast is interviewing individuals about the election and their feelings concerning the Palestinians. Natash serves as his cameraman, although she would clearly like to try directing as well. There is a deep rapport between the two, Amir completing her upon the way she looks and she clearly lightening in spirit the moment she is with him; although it is also evident that the two make no pretense to be a couple despite the fact that her sister’s boyfriend and Amir’s friends all presume that relationship.

     The reactions to Amir’s questions asked of people on the street are a mix, some saying Netanyahu will win, one suggesting Haifa will remain “red,” and another saying the media doesn’t give a shit. one individual slurring all Arabs. When one lady argues that Arabs aren’t like “us,” Amir reminds her that he is an Arab. Her answer: “But you don’t look like one.”

     The boy is understandably depressed. So should Israel have been in early May before Netanyahu’s victory which would mean the end of all Arab hopes. None of them matter, Natalie argues. But at the very moment a couple of tourists who have been watching the filming, interrupt.

They’re looking for something to do for the evening.

     Amir decides to interview them. Asked if they watch the Israel elections, the man, Aloysha (Alexey Branov), speaking Hebrew says that he doesn’t keep up, but his friend Olya (Nataliya Olshanskaya) watches the news a lot. He translates the Russian, in with Olya argues that it’s sad watching the elections. It’s sad, she continues, because whether they vote left or right, nothing good will come of it. “It will be bad.” You can’t talk about peace when you’re bombing people, Olya continues, let alone in occupied territories. And then tell the world how it hurts Israel.

      Aloysha adds that he doesn’t even know it its worth translating since it’s unlikely to be aired anyway.

      Their frank perceptions and intelligence clearly awe Natalie, as she simply remains quiet behind the camera, with her eyes alive, obviously able to understand Olya’s Russian quite perfectly. But she remains quiet as Amir has hinted in his response about her desire to help direct.

    They signal “peace and love,” and end their conversation. But Olya’s friend adds, that they are hearing “this justice fighter’s monologue.” Just wanting a drink and perhaps eat a little food, they ask if the other two know of restaurant nearby.

       Amir suggests “the Hurva,” a bar close to where they are.

       Olya calls over to the leaving couple, it was nice meeting you. At this point Natalie turns back to them, asking if they want to join them. And it is at this moment this complex film turns into another kind of movie, for a few moments no longer fraught with family feuds, political hatred, and governmental hypocrisy.

      Nathalie takes them to the house in Denya, where there’s plenty a beer and liquor and a large pool to enjoy. Nathalie toasts to the glorious failure that they about to face, Olya to her last night here (presumably meaning Israel).

      Taking up her camera, Natalie now feels free to take on the interview, asking in Russian “What does it mean when Olya says her last night?” Olya is surprised by a question in Russian and realizes suddenly that the girl has understood everything she previously said. She explains that she will be on a plane the next morning for a return to Russia, Aloysha expressing his frustration for her refusing to stay. He bets that within a month they will catch her red-handed. “I’m not doing anything illegal,” she claims. “It’s just a matter of time until it will be illegal,” he insists. “We don’t live in the stone age even in the Soviet Union,” she answers.**

      Olya asks if Aloysha is suggesting that she move to Israel. Who would want me here, she argues. But when Nathalie translates for Amir Olya’s question, he replies, “What about us?” a strange question, it seems, coming from an Arab who can’t speak a word of her language and certainly realizes that if she would remain it would be, presumably, as a Jewish individual in the majority rule. However, it is never established whether or not Olya is Jewish. And his argument is broader: “We need people like you here.” Obviously, he has been impressed by her general cynicism.

      “What did they catch you doing,” asks Nathalie, the key question of the film.

      “Having an affair with a girl,” answers Olya, which changes everything. After first spending a few tender moments with Amir, Olya explains that his mispronunciation of her name has to do with his inability to recognize the Russian soft “l” in her name, there are even letters that announce almost as a sign the softness of the upcoming letter, which soften everything like a kiss—hence the film’s title.

       But moments later, Olya has made it quite apparent that her soft body is intended for “Natash,” and she tosses out the idea that Aloysha should join the boy he’s been staring at all this while, Amir. Neither Nathalie nor Amir, it appears, feel any reason to disagree with the attentions of the two, and before long they begin playing in the pool, separating off for long moments before rejoining one another again, making this party very much like a hippie gathering, with love enough for everyone to go around. “Peace and love, indeed.” In three languages in fact, representing three different cultures.

      By morning, we see a large blanket spread out near the pool with all four having fallen asleep, the boys obviously having spent their sexual energy at the far ends of the Nathalie/Olya pairing at the center.

      Trouble is, they have forgotten about the fact that such a house would certainly be decked out with cameras; and moments later Nathalie’s sister and her soldier boyfriend awaken them, the sister hardly being able to control her delighted giggles, while Erez lectures Nathalie on the fact that she has cost her sister her job. All quickly dress, but we hope that the visitors don’t just run off, but realize they are very much needed.

      “Do you have any idea what’s going on in this country,” Erez asks, quite ironically given the night of political discussion Nathalie and Amir have just been through.

       “Listen, you stinking racist,” Nathalie replies, “you’re what’s disgusting about this country.”

       “Stupid Russian whore, that’s what you are,” Erez responds, proving her point.

       The sister replies, “I think you should leave now.”

       And so, at least some of the future violence is sent out of their lives.

       Over the past several years I have noticed that some of the LGBTQ+ films to which I’ve most felt attracted have been Israeli films, mostly of them profoundly considering issues that are far most superficially treated in the US, Canada, Australia, and Western European countries. Perhaps it because although it is a superficially intellectually open society, the pulls of religion and culture make for a problematic relationship with any gay, lesbian, transgender, or transsexual individual attempting to survive in that society. LGBTQ+ individuals remain true outsiders.

 

*The backstory on the elections is important for fully understand this film. General elections in Israel were held on May 29, 2996. In 1993 Yitzhak Rabin, then Prime Minister of Israel, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat had signed the Oslo Accords, establishing objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority, a prelude to what was understood as an eventual treaty establishing a Palestinian state. Palestinians, in turn, had agreed to abstain from the use of terror and abandoned their demands for the expulsion of all Jews who migrated after 1917 and the elimination of Israel.

     On November 4, 1995, at the close of a rally in support of the Oslo agreements in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish radical, Yigal Amir, opposing the peace initiatives and, most particularly, the signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin’s death was a shock to the Israeli Public, but also a sign of the ultra-right conservatives hoping to gain power.

     In the 1996 election, Labor party leader Shimon Peres was expected to win, holding a lead of 20%. But with the support of several ultra-Orthodox rabbis and with financial support by Australian mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, Benjamin Netanyahu narrowed that lead and surprisingly won the election, ending all hopes of a Palestinian-Israeli peace. The effects of that election are still felt today, of course, with and even more determined and conservative Netanyahu serving as Prime Minister, now attempting to even change the Israeli judicial system. (Some of these comments are quoted from the Wikipedia entry, but have been supported by research beyond that site).

 

**The dissolution of the Soviet Union took place actually in 1991, the year I was there, only a month or two after my visit. 1996 was also an election year in the Russian Federation when Boris Yeltsin won. For those who suggest that writer and director Uchitel does not know her history, I’d simply suggest that for Russians growing up in the Soviet Union, it took several years to reacclimate themselves to the fact that they were no longer the same country, a place after all that was still having internal battles of various regions, including Chechnya. In fact, one might describe as such a being Vladmir Putin, who that same year moved to Moscow to become part of the Yeltsin administration. Of course, Olya’s statements about the future of Russian society were mistaken, and she would be found guilty, soon after, for further sexual relationships with other women.

 

Los Angeles, July 20, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (July 2023).