Local Angel

"Local Angel", a film described by philosopher Slavoj Zizek as "A masterpiece", is not an easy work to characterize. It's a deeply personal odyssey of discovery, and a surreal work of art combining poetry, music, and images both beautiful and horrific. While its subtitle is "Theological Political Fragments," the film ends by tying its many elements together in ways the viewer may not expect. Moved by the destruction on Sept. 11 Aloni returned to Israel/ Palestine to grapple with the concepts of sacrifice and the sacred embedded in the history of a much more ancient edifice - the Temple Mount. The heart of the film is Udi's effort to understand the theological-political background he inherited from his mother, Shulamit Aloni. Images of mutations of Walter Benjamin's angel haunt the film from beginning to end. "Local Angel" is both challenging to the observer, and deeply moving. It is a generous, lush, imaginative