by MATTHEW HAYS and KEVIN LAFOREST

Up and Down

Up and Down is one of those rare cinematic gems that remains with you long after its final credit roll. It's a stirring film about the longing Czech people have for picking their destinies out of the ruins of their history of crushing Eastern Bloc tyranny. Director Jan Hrebejk reveals a series of intertwining characters and plot lines, suggesting a European Altmanesque mosaic. There are infertile couples who long for children, smugglers who come across a lost child and a bustling airport full of people eager to escape. Then there is a bruising family reunion, after a father collapses and an estranged son must return from abroad.

All deftly handled - in less capable hands, the business here could have fallen into low-rent pathos. But it does not, due to Hrebejk and his co-writer Petr Jarchovsky. And there are fine performances here, entirely natural and dimensional, especially Emília Vásáryová, Natasa Burger and Petr Forman (son of Milos).

The filmmakers have noted that this is their first film in which they depict a contemporary Czech reality - in the past, they note, they could really only deal with history, in large part because of the brutal occupation the country suffered under. Hrebejk has stated in interviews that his film is about the heroes and the victims of the current globalized world. Up and Down is a fitting tribute to them and to the fragility of the human state - this film is a sweet, unassuming beauty, alternately witty and haunting. I wonder if a sequel is in order - I long to know where these characters may land. (MH)

Campfire

Set in Jerusalem in the early 1980s, Campfire follows widow Rachel (Michaela Eshet) and her two teenage daughters as they prepare to move into one of the first West Bank settlements. While there are obviously religious and ideological interests to consider, all Rachel really desires is to feel like part of a community.

Likewise, the film is only incidentally political, with most screen time devoted to the three women and their little romances. The mother is being courted by wealthy globetrotting cantor Moshe (Yehoram Gaon), but she's fonder of lonely bus driver Yossi (wonderfully warm Moshe Ivgy). Rebellious older daughter Esti (Maya Maron) is going steady with a soldier, but they're having a hard time finding privacy. As for 15-year-old Tami (Hani Furstenberg, who looks like a Jewish Alexis Bledel from Gilmore Girls), she's just coming of age, innocently dancing in the living room, kissing the mirror and discovering boys.

All three actresses are adorable, and the movie itself is very pleasant, yet even through the happy times, there's an ominous feeling cutting through. This is Israel; things can't end well, right? Trouble does come knocking, but not from where one expects.

Campfire was written and directed by Joseph Cedar, who grew up in a Zionist family that supported the Settlement Movement. Some have accused him of trying to indict his origins, but the film seemed balanced enough to me, with good and bad on every side. The half-baked, curiously optimistic ending is frustrating, but otherwise this is a moving, beautifully acted picture. (KL)

Up and Down and Campfire open Friday, June 30

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