Disengagement (2007)

Director:

Amos Gitai

Writers:

Amos Gitai
Marie-Jose Sanselme

Release Date:

9 October 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A political drama centered around Israel's pullout from the occupied Gaza strip, in which a French woman of Israeli origin comes to the Gaza Strip to find her long ago abandoned daughter.

Plot Keywords:

Gaza | Daughter | Israel | Gaza Strip | Israeli

Cast

Juliette Binoche	...	Ana
Liron Levo	...	Uli
Jeanne Moreau	...	Françoise
Barbara Hendricks	...	Barbara
Dana Ivgy	...	Dana
Hiam Abbass	...	Hiam
Tomer Russo	...	Tomer
Israel Katorza	...	Israel
Yussuf Abu-Warda	...	Youssef
Uri Klauzner	...	Uri
Amos Gitai	...	Dani
Verena Mundhenke	...	Mimi
Roni Weisman
Rachela Nisanov
Meir Shimoni
Vered Rozenblat

Directed by
Amos Gitai

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Amos Gitai
Marie-Jose Sanselme

Produced by
Tilde Corsi	....	co-producer
Pierfrancesco Fiorenza	....	co-producer
Christoph Friedel	....	co-producer
Gadi Levy	....	line producer
Richard Lormand	....	associate producer
Patrick Sobelman	....	co-producer
Claudia Steffen	....	co-producer
Laurent Truchot	....	producer

Original Music by
Simon Stockhausen

Cinematography by
Christian Berger

Film Editing by
Isabelle Ingold

Casting by
Ilan Moscovitch

Production Design by
Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Tim Pannen
Eli Zion

Costume Design by
Moïra Douguet

Makeup Department
Cédric Gérard	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Fabrice Chevrollier	....	production manager: France
Viola Fügen	....	post-production supervisor
Christian Heinz	....	unit manager: Germany
Elke Sasserath	....	production manager germany

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Denis Gerault	....	first assistant director: France, Germany
Corinne Le Hong	....	second assistant director
Shir Shoshani	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Tim Pannen	....	production design: Germany

Sound Department
Roland Duboué	....	dialogue editor
Séverin Favriau	....	sound editor
John Iranzo	....	boom operator
Nikolas Javelle	....	sound editor
Micki Joanni	....	synchron editor
Michel Kharat	....	sound
Oded Ringel	....	sound editor
Stéphane Thiébaut	....	sound re-recording mixer
Pascal Villard	....	sound designer
Pascal Villard	....	sound editor

Visual Effects by
Thomas Menz	....	title animator: CinePostproduction GmbH
Phillipp Sauermann	....	digital artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Gerald Helf	....	first assistant camera
Kimber Lee Jerrett	....	gaffer
Christian Kitscha	....	camera focus: "b" camera
Christian Kitscha	....	second assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Moïra Douguet	....	wardrobe designer

Other crew
Julie Aguttes	....	second assistant director: France
Rose Bouchetit	....	location manager: France
Isabelle Gattiker	....	production coordinator
Aurélia Morali	....	production assistant: France
Sari Turgeman	....	script

Thanks
Dominique Besnehard	....	thanks
Maxime Delauney	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Agat Films & Cie
• Agav Films
• Agav Hafakot
• Canal+ (avec le participation de)
• Coca Color (co-production)
• Eurimages Council of Europe
• Pandora Filmproduktion
• R&C Produzioni
• arte France Cinéma

Distributors

• AudioVisual (2009) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Frenetic Films (2009) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• IFC Films (2009) (USA) (theatrical)
• Pandora Filmes (2009) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Ad Vitam Distribution (2008) (France) (all media)
• Alive Vertrieb und Marketing (2009) (Germany) (DVD)
• Cinéart (2008) (Belgium) (all media)
• SPI International (2010) (Hungary) (all media)
• Studio Canal (2008) (France) (DVD)
• Studio Canal (2008) (worldwide) (all media) (International Sales agent)
• Universal Pictures (2010) (Australia) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Désengagement" - France
"Disimpegno" - Italy
"Hitnatkoot" - Israel (Hebrew title)
"Trennung" - Germany
"A Retirada" - Brazil (festival title), Portugal (imdb display title)
"Aproximação" - Brazil
"Kivonulás" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Viaii aposyrsi" - Greece (DVD title)
"W zawieszeniu" - Poland (imdb display title)

Runtime:

Canada:115 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Germany | Italy | Israel | France

Language:

Hebrew | English | French | Italian | Arabic

Color:

Color

Certification:

Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Avignon, Vaucluse, France

Company:

Agat Films & Cie

Trivia:

Liron Levo replaced Itay Tiran and Lior Ashkenazi.

The best part is the ensemble of extras

The movie starts with a long conversation that seems written solely to enable a character to complain that the Arabs of Palestine are not recognized as a distinct nation although (contends this character, who is never seen again) they have been one for hundreds of years. It continues with a long interlude of existential/claustrophobic drama in a large house in Avignon occupied by the fresh corpse of an old professor, his frequently and unaccountably merry daughter, and his adopted son from Israel, with whom the daughter flirts. This interlude fails perhaps because the actors seldom have a line in their native language and therefore can't summon up the mojo to give the cryptic relationships interest. Then it appears that according to the old man's will, to which the daughter unsuccessfully tries to forge a change, the daughter must now go visit her own abandoned daughter who lives in Gaza in a Jewish settlement which the son already has military orders to coincidentally, at the very same time, go help dismantle. The dismantling of the settlement, re-enacted up the coast at Nitzanim, looks reasonably realistic, at least if you judge by the news footage of the time. A fairly large troupe of bit players does justice to the soldiers and the settlers, and the camera conveys the atmosphere well. As the old man's daughter meets her own daughter and they, at least briefly, lose one another again during the evacuation, is their relationship supposed to symbolize something about the political situation? Or vice versa? What do the scenes in Gaza have to do with the matters raised in the Avignon scenes? A viewer is tempted to think that perhaps Gaza was introduced for no reason but to link an otherwise boring and incomplete movie to a hot item from the recent news pages.