This is not the first time Michael Winterbottom has navigated the eggshell ground of the Israel/Palestine conflict. 2022’s Eleven Days In May, a documentary he co-directed with Mohammed Sawwaf, portrayed harrowing life in Gaza during an Israeli bombing campaign. This drama, based on real characters and events, goes further back into the past, to the days before the founding of the state of Israel.
In the latter half of the 1930s, as the Jewish population in Palestine is growing, there is constant conflict with the Arab population over who has rightful claim to the land. Violence is ever present, with terror attacks from both sides and no realistic prospect of a resolution. The British, given control of the area following World War I, step in to ‘keep peace’, in their own heavy-handed way. Officer Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling), a man who views most in the region with disdain, is brought in to track down the head of a Zionist militant group, while policeman Tom Wilkin (Douglas Booth) is assigned to undercover work in Tel Aviv.
At a party, Tom meets the title character, Shoshana Borochov (Irina Starshenbaum), a journalist and member of the underground army Haganah, which is set on establishing a Jewish state. Tom and Shoshana fall in love, a union always complicated by their respective positions in a febrile situation.
Handsomely executed, but rather like walking through a museum exhibition
As a history lesson, it’s interesting, if understandably complicated to follow. Though he falls back on voiceover and newsreel to fill out the knottier details, Winterbottom (who wrote the script with Laurence Coriat and Paul Viragh) keeps the many story strands admirably clear.
The central romance, though, always feels more a narrative device than an independently compelling story. There’s fairly little time given to getting to know Shoshana and Tom outside of the causes they stand for. They illustrate the complexity of the different sides in this conflict, and the low hope of lasting happiness, but there’s not much reason to invest in their romance.
As a take on a very difficult topic, made even more so by current events, this is admirable and handsomely executed, but it’s rather like walking through a museum exhibition: it’s packed with fascinating detail, but doesn’t let you close enough to touch it.
In UK cinemas Feb 24.