Kippur

original title:
Kippur
other titles:
(Am Tag von Kippur), Kippour
country / year of production:
Israel , France / 2000
original length:
123 min. , color
premiere:
F: 17 May 2000
genre:
melodrama
based on:
director:
Amos Gitai
film script:
Amos Gitai , Marie-Jose Sanselme
producer:
Amos Gitai , Michel Propper , Laurent Truchot
cinematographer:
Renato Berta
editor:
Monica Coleman
composer:
Jan Garbarek
cast (role):
Liron Levo (Weinraub) , Tomer Russo (Ruso) , Uri Klauzner (Klausner ) , Yoram Hattab (The Pilot) , Guy Amir (Gadassi) , Liron Levo , Tomer Russo , Uri Klauzner , Yoram Hattab , Guy Amir
more:
plot synopsis:
One moment student Weinraub make slove to his girlfriend, the next war breaks out. It is October 6th, 1973, and Israel is attacked on one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, by Syria and Egypt. Together with his friend Russo Weinraub have been instructed to join a special military unit on the Golan Heights. Amidst the choas they are unbale to locate their unit and fall in with the team of a rescue helicopter. The two help Dr. Klauzner to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield, exposing themselves to the same danger than the soldiers in the front line.
Whatever euphoria Sgt. Weinraub and Lt. Ruso may have initially felt about the conflict is quickly dispelled the minute they hit the field: The losses are heavy and the injuries are horrifying. Eventually as the fighting rages on around them and their helicopter is hit by enemy fire.
keywords:
medical orderly , air force , helicopter , rocket , based on a true story
war:
literature:
remarks:
Won a "Golden Palm" at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

The film is closely based on Gitai's own experiences during the Yom Kippur War when, as a young student of architecture in the early '70s, he suddenly found himself in an air rescue unit and was nearly killed when his chopper was hit by a missile over Syria.
The film does not focus on the fighting itself but the actual "work" of combat. Like scavengers the rescue team picks up the broken bloody remnants of war from the battlefield.
availability:
VHS, DVD