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| Rage and Glory | |
|---|---|
| זעם ותהילה | |
| Directed by | Avi Nesher |
| Written by | Avi Nesher |
| Produced by | Avi Nesher |
| Music by | Rami Kleinstein |
Release date |
|
Running time | 118 minutes |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Budget | $900,000 |
Rage and Glory is a 1984 Israeli historical drama film written and directed by Avi Nesher.
This is Avi Nesher's fifth film, it recreates the actions of the Jerusalem Lehi cell in March 1942, shortly after the murder of "Yair" by the British mandate authorities. The film was shot between January and May 1984. [1]
The script was written after interviews with Lehi fighters, especially David Shomron and Anshel Shpilman. Yitzhak Shamir also participated in the consultations. Real events were recreated, such as the distribution of leaflets, the kidnapping and murder of Alex Rubovitz, a military trial and execution by hanging, an underground broadcast, an attempt on the life of a British commander, and others. The film had a budget of about a million dollars and was in production for a year. For the production of the film, the details of that period were carefully restored: the basement apartments with almost no furniture in which the underground lived, the headquarters of the British police, the lifestyle and clothes in Jerusalem in the 1940s, Lehi posters, British army uniforms brought specially from England, military trucks and weapons of that period. The actors voluntarily locked themselves up for three months in one apartment in order to personally learn the nature of the life of the underground. [2]
The film pays considerable attention to explaining the motives of the rebels, whose goal was to fight the treacherous, in their opinion, policy of the British authorities, which prevented the escape and rescue of Jews from the Holocaust in Europe. This British policy violated the main condition of the British Mandate received from the League of Nations - the creation of Jewish National Home and a refuge for Jews from persecution in the Diaspora. Despite this, the British Mandatory authorities denied asylum to Jews from 1939 to 1948, including during the Nazi genocide, the mass planned murder of 6 million Jews. [3]
The credits at the beginning of the film mention that with the outbreak of war, the main Jewish military organizations, the Haganah and the Irgun, ceased their anti-British underground activities and joined the British war effort against Germany. Most of the Jewish population did not realize the scope of the Holocaust in Europe and the urgency of overcoming the British blockade of Jewish refugees. Lehi fighters are forced to fight the British authorities alone, surrounded by a wall of exclusion.
The film caused great controversy in Israel during the Lebanon War (Nesher was even accused of legitimizing terrorism), but, on the other hand, the film was recognized and appreciated at film festivals around the world, in the eyes of critics and film professionals. In the US, it is considered one of the most stylish action films ever made. During the production of the film, the actor Juliano Mer was wounded by shrapnel from a blank bullet, director Avi Nesher replaced him in the filming of the police station explosion scene. A few months later, after Mer's recovery, they added close-up shots of the scene. [4]
The film begins with an underground Lehi broadcast by Daphne (Khana Azulai) from a building basement in Jerusalem, where the commander of the Jerusalem branch, Melnik (Yigal Naor) and broadcaster Slonim (Lior Nachman), are located.
The date is March 14, 1942, about a month after the assassination of Avraham Stern. Lehi HQ sends Eddie "The Butcher" (Juliano Mer), a fearless fighter, to Jerusalem to shake up the passive cell and kill the British commander in Jerusalem.
Also among the cell's fighters is Noah Kaplan (Roni Pinkovich), a 19-year-old high school graduate. He is in love with his high school girlfriend Angela Sasson (Rona Fried). Roni arrives at a dance party attended by British soldiers. Angela introduces Noah to her father (Jacques Cohen) and mother (Gaby Aldor), but they disapprove of her relationship with Noah.
The British arrest Shimon Rubovitz (Yahli Bergman) while distributing leaflets. He is tortured to death by interrogator Garwin (John Phillips), but does not name his friends.
Eddie plans to kill the British commander. The explosives are being prepared by "Pinocchio" (Tovia Gelber) and should explode when the command vehicle enters the fortified base. The explosive fails to detonate, the plan goes awry, however the fighter Alex (Dudu Yafet) still desperately opens fire, followed by the rest of the attackers. The British open heavy fire and hit Alex. The fighters retreat with the wounded, but their hiding place is betrayed by an informant. The British rush there and capture Alex. He appears before a British court-martial and delivers a fiery speech against the British government's treacherous policy of preventing Jewish rescue from the Holocaust by blocking them from escaping to the Land of Israel. Alex is sentenced to death by a British court, defiantly refuses a petition for clemency, and is executed by the British on the gallows. "Pinocchio" manages to escape to the apartment of his girlfriend Yael (Segal Cohen), who takes care of him and cheers him up.
Noah and Angela marry is secret from her parents. Her father eventually decides to sell his factory and emigrate to the United States, and Angela informs Noah that she must leave with her parents.
Eddie prepares an attack on the British base by planting a bomb on a captured British truck full of Lehi fighters dressed as British soldiers. They manage to infiltrate the British base in a truck, but are recognized. A long, bitter battle ensues, in which Eddie and all of Lehi's attackers are killed except for Noah, who manages to escape. The car explodes and wreaks havoc.
Noah was caught six weeks later, sentenced to life in prison and released with the establishment of the State of Israel.
| Player name | character name |
|---|---|
| Juliano Mer | Eddie "The Butcher" |
| Ronnie Pinkovich | Noah Kaplan |
| Yigal Naor | Miller |
| Hana Azulai | Daphne |
| Rona Frid | Angela Sasson |
| Jacques Cohen | Mr Sasson |
| Gaby Eldor | Ms Sasson |
| Tobia Gelber | "Pinocchio" |
| Lior Nachman | Slonim |
| Dudu Yaphet | Alex |
| Yali Bergman | Shimon |
| John Phillips | Garvin |
| Sigal Cohen | Yael |
| Yael Dar | Niva |
| Joseph Bee | Martin |
| Muni Yosef | Elnakam |
| Barry Langford | Colonel Kane |
| Danny Friedman | Langer |
The Irgun, or Etzel, was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.
Zionist political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Zionists in support of establishing and maintaining a Jewish state in Palestine. These actions have been carried out by individuals, paramilitary groups, and the Israeli government, from the early 20th century to the present day, as part of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.
Lehi, often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang, was a Zionist paramilitary militant organization founded by Avraham ("Yair") Stern in Mandatory Palestine. Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by use of violence, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state. It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel, upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out acts of terrorism.
Haganah was the main Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the region, and was formally disbanded in 1948, when it became the core force integrated into the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Yitzhak Shamir was an Israeli politician and the seventh prime minister of Israel, serving two terms. Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Shamir was a leader of the Zionist militant group Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang.
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Israel Eldad, was an Israeli Revisionist Zionist philosopher and member of the Jewish underground group Lehi in Mandatory Palestine.
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The Sergeants affair was an incident that took place in Mandate Palestine in July 1947 during Jewish insurgency in Palestine, in which the Jewish underground group Irgun kidnapped two British Army Intelligence Corps NCOs, Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice, and threatened to hang them if the death sentences passed on three Irgun militants—Avshalom Haviv, Meir Nakar, and Yaakov Weiss—were carried out. The three had been captured by the British during the Acre Prison break, tried, and convicted on charges of illegal possession of arms, and with 'intent to kill or cause other harm to a large number of people'. When the three men were executed by hanging, the Irgun killed the two sergeants and hung their booby-trapped bodies in a eucalyptus grove near Netanya.
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Events in the year 1948 in Israel.
Events in the year 1947 in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Events in the year 1944 in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Avi Nesher is an Israeli film producer, film director, screenwriter and actor.
Avraham Stern, alias Yair, was one of the leaders of the Jewish paramilitary organization Irgun. In September 1940, he founded a breakaway militant Zionist group named Lehi, called the "Stern Gang" by the British authorities and by the mainstream in the Yishuv Jewish establishment. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.