Orizzonti review - WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME by Hadar Morag

The dangers of cominhg of age, shown with bleak and disarming frankness in WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME, the feature directorial debut of HADAR MORAG from the ORIZZONTI section of the 72nd VENICE FILM FESTIVAL.

A young male, marginalised by his peers and going nowhere fast, is the apprentice baker in a shanty, dirty and second rate bakery. Unsatisfied with his life and with no real reference point, his life is affected after an encounter with a lone rover who rides a motorcycle and earns his living by sharpening knives with his machine. The two very naturally get closer together, and he unceremoniously becomes his apprentice, looking up to him like a father figure. But things in the real world are not all that rosy. 

To spoil the developments of the film would be to make WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME an injustice, given the fact that the film's storyline is quite restricted and that, aside from a few pivotal stand out moments, which stand out all the more due to the choice of using dialogue sparingly and a hyper realistic approach that may make the narrative of the film seem wafer thin. But this is all done on purpose. 

In her feature directorial debut, HADAR MORAG is much more focused on atmosphere and tone. After the introduction of the character of the lone rover, the film shifts into gears, but most of the film is spent with the viewer watching him sharpen knives, in sequences underlined by the deafening sound of the machine he uses. This allows us for a close examination of the sophisticated subtleness with which the two are brought together, while of course the loudness of these sequences also points out at a danger that, in the film, seems imminent.

The story is focused on its concept, but while the audience would be inclined to think WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME a film making significant comments about the Israeli Palestinian conflict, it is much more powerful to see this film as a more general examination on the vulnerabilities of a young boy growing up in an empoverished setting and without any positive influence to speak of. Indeed, the film could be taken as a minimalist and blunt coming of age drama, which chronicles the growing disenchantment of a young male, an outsider in his world, right up to a disturbing and graphic ending. 

The title is possibly ill advised, and makes it seem like a preachy excercise in self-righteousness. But actually, remarkably, it is not so. WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME is a challenging experience, but it is essentially a positive and impactful one which, albeit not being for everyone, is still violently hypnotic and as frank as a piece of a gritty and observant documentary.