Shuli dreams of life in another place, maybe Tel Aviv. In the meantime she lives in a god-forsaken desert town and works in a spring factory. Eli, the local macho, tries desperately to win her heart, and brings her a foreign worker to do her work as a present. An unexpected twist in the relationships and Shuli might see her dreams come true.
REVIEW
"Desert Trains," an offering from the Beit Berl School in Israel, is set at a factory that makes springs for trains. Located in a barren landscape that evokes Avi Nesher's "Left Turn at the End of the World," the film tells the story of an inadvertent love triangle.
The bullying boss or owner of the factory, filled with passion for a beautiful young woman on the assembly line, attempts to court her by presenting her with an Asian migrant worker as her helper. Speaking no Hebrew, the migrant worker has even fewer words than the inarticulate beau, but his gentleness and soulful looks succeed in reaching the heart of the young woman.
They go on the run for a magical night away from the factory, courting and loving in silence, but the factory boss comes after them with the roar of his SUV. With morning comes reality, signaled by the train tracks at the edge of their desert world, and by the train's mournful, inescapable sound.
Boaz Armoni uses mechanical sound to convey love and desperation while dismissing the power of words to either woo or hurt. It is the shrill and persistent sound of trains that demands the audience's aural attention, while the dialogue is limited, downplayed, or incidental.
-Tom Friedmann
| Year | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Country |
Israel |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Category | Fiction |
| Runtime | 25 minutes |
| Rating | NR |
Director
Boaz Armoni
Production Company
Beit Berl College
Producer
Kenan Eldar
Written By
Boaz Armoni
Cinematographer
Gideon Smilansky
Editor
Amit Ginton
Music
Udi Goldblat
Principal Cast
Raymond Amsalem, Takanori Cawaharda, Tavor Manzor
