Search

Saint Clara

1995, Movie, NR, 85 mins

SAINT CLARA
starstarstarstar
First-time Israeli directors Ari Folman and Ori Sivan ransack some pretty obvious sources for this self-consciously outre tale of classroom anarchy and clairvoyance. Though occasionally charming, this hollow, amateurish pastiche feels at least 10 years out of date. Lucy Dubinchik stars as 13-year-old Clara, a violet-eyed Russian immigrant gifted with the power to read minds and foretell the future. Enrolled in Israel's Golda Meir School, Clara bewitches both the tyrannical administration and the despotic Eddie (Halil Elohev), a barely teenaged punk who keeps the rest of the kids in line with an effective mixture of intimidation and little orange pills. Folman and Sivan raid the early films of Pedro Almodovar, Jean-Jacques Beineix and Alex Cox for their millennial vision of dysfunctional families and eve of destruction romance, but neglect to provide any real context for the anarchic posturing. Stringing up a statue of Golda Meir and setting it on fire sounds bold enough, but aside from its prosaic antiauthoritarianism, Folman and Sivan's film remains curiously apolitical. And since the empty revolutionary sloganeering and "F--- the system" T-shirts strike a pose rather than reflect any real political stance, it may be one of the most cynically "punk" films yet. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Advertisement
Saint Clara
Buy Saint Clara from Amazon.com
From KINO VIDEO (DVD)
Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy New: $22.49

more Saint Clara products

Advertisement