SCAFFOLDING (Pigumim)
B
Israel Poland (90 mi) 2017
d: Matan Yair
A film that
explores a different aspect of Jewish life in Israel, namely a working underclass. Within that background, the film takes us
into a remedial educational high school class where we find 17-year old Asher
(Asher Lux) in a literature class with other kids with behavior issues, most of
whom joke that they can barely read.
Without ever specifying a medical diagnosis, Asher likely has attention
deficit disorder (ADD) issues, where he impulsively blurts out questions
without waiting to be called, often viewed as a classroom disturbance, as he
has what are called temperament issues, while he’s also prone to violence, but
that’s another issue. The film is
directed by Matan Yair, who’s also a novelist, having spent nearly ten years
teaching a literature class, where Asher is a non-professional actor who was
chosen from his classroom, who’s onscreen nearly the entire film, becoming an
extremely compelling character study due to his inherent authenticity, which is
really the centerpiece of the film. Shot
on a $400,000 budget, the film is interestingly a joint Israeli and Polish
production, using a Polish cinematographer, Bartosz Bieniek, which offers a
more expressive look to the film, moving from close-ups and handheld camerawork
to recurring outdoor shots of Asher working on a building scaffold at all hours
of the day with other laborers, as he’s being groomed to inherit his father’s
scaffolding business. The director’s use
of time gaps and jump cuts often feel jarring to viewers, using abrasive
moments to emulate the often unpredictable behavior of the central
character. Only one other film like this
comes to mind, Sam Fleischner’s Stand
Clear of the Closing Doors (2013), which uses an autistic actor in a film
that accentuates the heightened sensory aspects of his personality disorder — a
really beautiful film, by the way. But
if Asher is a compelling character, so too is his teacher, Rami (Ami Smolarchik),
who projects an intelligent calm throughout all the interruptions, showing
infinite patience, asking provocative questions, and always having the
student’s best interests in mind, knowing they may never advance to college,
that this may be the last time most will ever have any contact with poems,
short stories, or great literature.
Surprisingly,
Asher’s father, Milo (Yaacov Cohen), shows little interest in his son
continuing his education, finding it a waste of time, as instead he’s grooming
him to take over the family business and has him regularly working on the
scaffolds, believing hard labor is what’s good for him, as it saps his
aggression and helps stabilize his behavior issues, though he’s concerned about
Asher’s ability to manage other employees, many of whom tend to be older
immigrants with complicated backgrounds.
Milo is an ex-con who wants his son to stay out of trouble even after
he’s gone, thinking work is the best medicine.
There is no mention of a mother, with women almost entirely absent from
his life, surrounding himself exclusively with male friends, like fellow
laborers or teammates on the soccer field, where women are typically depicted
through negative stereotypes and derogatory language. So this is largely an examination of male
behavior through a prism of a learning disability, where Rami becomes an
alternate father figure, offering contradictory views from his own father,
suggesting there are other options besides the family business, where education
has its advantages, as it builds a healthier society. But Asher is like a bull in a China shop,
belligerent and continually exhibiting inappropriate behavior, where in the
eyes of others he’s a troublemaker. But
Rami sees him as an earnest and sincere kid, easily sidetracked and losing
concentration, no doubt, but with constant guidance he accepts instructions, as
he’s willing to learn. In class, few do
any homework or take actual interest in the material, as they quickly lose
focus and go off on tangents, but Rami patiently reels them back in, reading
the material himself to make sure they’re acquainted with the classics, where
the teacher feels it’s his obligation to help them navigate their way through
the material. It doesn’t always work,
but sometimes it does, like Asher walking up to him in the hallways afterwards
and urgently recalling one of the lessons.
By chance, Asher
overhears Rami ask another class to think of questions they might want to ask
their fathers but never would, and write them down for class the next day,
which prompts Asher to write his own questions for his overly stern father that
he dutifully gives to his teacher. What’s
most intriguing about Asher is there is no filter, as he simply blurts out
what’s on his mind, wearing his heart on his sleeve, making it clear what he’s
thinking, as he’s totally transparent, with no secrets or ulterior
motives. Rami sees the goodness in this
kid, and continually helps steer him on the right path, helping him pass one of
his oral final examinations by being flexible enough to ask the same question
in another way, as what he was interested in was knowing whether or not he knew
the correct answer. Always told in a
naturalistic light, the contrast between father figures is intriguing, as both
want what’s best for him, but they pursue it by taking such different paths. His father grows ill, needing to have an
operation, while Rami has his own personal issues that dramatically alter the
narrative path of the film in a spellbinding sequence of its own, leaving Asher
stranded, as if on an island, at least temporarily, perhaps for the first time
in his life, having to navigate his own way through the final exams. Other teachers are not as helpful as Rami,
remaining rigidly authoritative, offering no guidance whatsoever, allowing him
simply to sink or swim on his own, where he’s more inclined to fail. Asher brings a tightly wound intensity to the
role, where his confrontational manner, however, feels intimidating to other
teachers and administrators, where misbehaving is part of his personality,
often veering out of control, where there’s a thin line that separates him from
criminal behavior, at times crossing it, as he has no internal mechanism to
stop him from going there. Nonetheless,
this film offers extraordinary scrutiny into the examination of a male psyche
that is damaged, viewed as throwaway goods, representing a near invisible
underclass that is marginalized, suddenly thrust into the mainstream, fully integrated
into the fabric of society.
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